Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) has sufficient developer options to make your head spin. So many, in fact, that we have only recently managed to investigate all of them. One curious entry asks the user to make a passcode for protecting desktop backups. Last we checked, there was no Google-provided desktop backup software. It turns out that Mountain View built a new system for backing up your apps and their associated data, but it’s only accessible from the Android Debug Bridge (ADB).

With a little command line magic or a handy Windows app, Galaxy Nexus owners can export a full backup of apps and user data to a file which can be restored later. Read on for all the details on the process.

With any new smartphone, there is a bit of setup to be done. With Android, users can tweak every minute detail of the device to get the best experience. There’s no reason to go hunting around the Internet for all the best tip and tricks for your new Android phone. We’re here to bring it all together for you.

Whether your device is still on Gingerbread or you’re rocking the latest and greatest Android 4.0, we’ve got you covered. This step-by-step guide will help you get that shiny new Android phone up and running in no time.

Even compared to the rest of the tech world, memory and storage evolve quickly. Once-pricey USB drives are now given away like candy, SATA III hard drives and SSDs are faster than ever and camera memory cards are providing 32 and 64 gigabytes of storage for hundreds of high resolution images. Even within the SD, SDHC and SDXC card types we covered last year, there are important speed classes that determine what SD memory cards are capable of.

The confusing old "6x, 10x, 13x" etc. ratings have gone out of style compared to the common sense Class 2, Class 4, Class 6 and Class 10 ratings. Casual photographers won't even need to pay attention to the ratings of their SD cards, but pros shooting at high frames per second or capturing HD video absolutely have to pick the right card for the job. Here's how to figure out which memory card class is right for you.

Photographers are a funny bunch. One day, they tell you that it’s not the gear that matters, it’s the photographer, so you should be able to get great photos out of that old Instamatic. In the next breath, they tell you to throw away the perfectly decent kit lens you got with your new DSLR because photos shot with it will be crap. Oh, what to believe!

What you really want is the right lens for your photography. That 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens may be just right for you, if you primarily take photos of your family in brightly lit environments, or lug it along on vacations, where the relative light weight of the kit lens makes life easier on necks and backs. On the other hand, if you’re trying to shoot your kid playing basketball in crappy gym lighting, and get blurry messes for most pictures, maybe you do need a different lens.

Let’s try to deconstruct some of the key numbers, and understand why some lenses do better than others – and why they also might cost and weigh a whole lot more. Most of the discussion will focus on zoom lenses, but we’ll touch on primes – fixed focal length lenses – at the end. Since I’m a Nikon shooter, most of my examples will be Nikon, but the principles are the same whether you use Canon, Sony or some other DSLR brand.

So you picked up a shiny new Samsung Galaxy Nexus on Verizon over the weekend? Well, its important to get off to a good start with any new smartphone, and the Galaxy Nexus has so many new tricks that it can be a little overwhelming. To that end, we’re going to tell you about the 5 things you should do immediately when turning on your Galaxy Nexus.

New users might have done some of this, but we’d wager everyone will find something new here. Grab your Nexus and get ready to do some tweaking.

So, you’ve got a shiny new Kindle Fire, but your favorite app isn’t in the Amazon Appstore? Since the Fire lacks access to the Android Market, you’re just out of luck, right? Nope. Amazon was good enough to leave the frameworks in place to allow sideloading of apps from other sources. It’s not the most straight forward process, but that never stopped us before.

it might take you a few minutes, but there is enough of Android filling the Fire's cracks to make this a quick fix. Read on as we go over how to expand your Kindle Fire’s app selection in just three steps.

It only takes one epic disaster to make you take password security seriously, so why not get out ahead of that calamity? A password manager can generate complex passwords and plug them in whenever you need them, making it nearly impossible for someone to crack your accounts. There are a number of excellent password management services out there, and many of them have solid Android integration. Whether you want your data manged for you in the cloud, or you want a safe and secure database file on your phone, there are options.

We’re going to go over the best password manages on Android so you can make the safe choice that’s right for you.

Our 24-hour Oktobercast marathon went out over a live video stream, but as an alternative the day-long podcast was simultaneously streamed through a service called Mixlr. Mixlr's audio streams--accessible on computers or mobile devices thanks to HTML 5-optimized sites and Flash playback on Android--gave listeners an opportunity to follow along for the entire 'cast and was rock solid for the entire production. So why had none of us heard of Mixlr before?

Simple answer: Mixlr's free broadcasting launched in late May 2011, and since then the service has been piling on new features--integration with Dropbox, Facebook, Soundcloud, and more. If you're looking to livestream your own podcast or broadcast audio from a special event, Mixlr's a great place to start. We'll walk you through the setup--what kind of hardware you'll need, how to get Mixlr running smoothly, and what it takes to get music and sound effects like the Inception horn integrated into the stream.

Bags come in all sorts of varieties. Some are designed to contain all your gear — from your biggest lenses, to your cache of spare batteries. Others are slim and compact, intended for no more than a single body and lens. From backpacks to slings and over the shoulder or messenger-style bags, there's nearly an endless selection of models from which to choose. So how do you decide what's best?

Predictably, it all comes down to the amount of gear you own, and how you want to use it. If you're searching for the perfect bag for your DSLR, here's a good place to start.