Tweaking4All.com - Android Archives

I have written a pretty extensive article before, on “How to install Kodi on Amazon Fire TV“. It’s still an article worth reading, but a better “trick” has become available.

In the previous article, we used an application called IkonoTV as a “front” for Kodi/XBMC. This method works well, but has it’s limitations. The new method is easier to install, doesn’t need an application like IkonoTV and … the home button on the remote brings you to a screen that just works easier.

Another important feature is that this new method is supposed to work with the newer Amazon Fire TV models – unfortunately, I do not own the newer model, so I could not test and confirm that.

I’ve always loved Kodi, formerly known as XBMC. I’ve installed it on regular PC’s and Mac’s, tiny PC’s, AppleTV’s (1st and 2nd generation), Boxee Box, etc.  With the arrival of Amazon’s Fire TV, it was just a matter of time when I’d buy one.

I did look at numerous Android based devices before, just for the purpose of running Kodi (XBMC), but so far all the horror stories have kept me from doing so. Amazon’s Fire TV however has been reviewed and always seemed to score high when it comes to performance.u

However, … one downside of Amazon’s Android based devices is that Amazon feels the need to force their rules, their app-store and their interface on you and will not allow you to tinker with non-Amazon approved apps – like Kodi (XBMC).

So in this article I’ll show you how easy it is to install Kodi on Amazon’s Fire TV, and some additional Tips & Tricks.
It’s quick, it’s easy and the end result is awesome.

Most mobile devices can display PDF documents just fine. Some mobile devices, or at least the apps on these devices, show things just tad nicer when the document is formatted in the ePUB format.

In this article, for Windows, MacOS X and Linux, we will show you how to easily convert a PDF document to a ePUB document for use with your mobile device (Android, iPhone, iPad, etc) or computer.

Note : The tools used in this article also support other formats (Kindle, Doc, TXT, HTML, MOBI, etc.).

TV’s become “smarter” and cell phones and tablet more capable, and with that the question arises:
How do I play video from my phone on my TV?

In this article we’ll cover the playback of videos on your TV, from your cellphone or tablet, for both Android and iOS (iPhone etc) devices.

For this to work you will briefly touch on the use of cables, but then show you a way that’s completely wireless …

Making your own Ringtone isn’t difficult, but it can be a bit daunting at times how to exactly do it.

In this article I’ll show you how you can create your own ringtones, from music files like MP3’s or even from movie files like AVI, MP4, etc. For this we will use WavePad which is available for Windows and MacOS X for free (for home use).

Note that if you only want to create ringtones from an MP3 that’s already on your Android phone, an app like RingDroid (free) can do the editing right on your phone as well.

iPhone users can read these 2 articles for doing exactly the same: Windows and MacOS X make Ringtones from MP3 or Movies.

You might have read the articles on using your old phones as IP Camera monitors (Android, iPhone), so you can imagine that it didn’t take me much time to set them up as IP Camera’s as well. After all: these smartphones are pretty capable devices and do come with a build in camera, often better than the camera’s build in dedicated IP Camera’s like my Foscam IP camera’s.

In this article I’ll show you how to repurpose your old Android phone as an IP Camera, so you can remotely monitor for example your house, your baby, etc.

With the average “life-span” of a cellphone (the time we actually use the phone) of 1 to 2 years, a lot of folks should have “old” phones in their drawers.

Quite a few of those could be smartphones, which can in fact be seen as computers. They most certainly outperform my first PC’s with ease so wouldn’t there be good ways to repurpose our “old” smartphones?

I already used this kind of setup for my old iPhone – so I decided to do the same thing for one of my old Android phone (the Samsung has a much nicer screen than my old iPhone).

As an Android user, wether it’s a phone or a tablet, you’d like to be able to copy your movies or videos as well – so you can watch videos when on the move as well. Nothing beats your own selection, and you can watch your movie while traveling, commuting, or during a work break, … when you want it and how you want it.

In this article I’ll describe how you can copy your movie(s) to an Android device under MacOS X, Windows and Linux, without having to spend money on tools.

Apple users should follow these guides: with or without iTunes, or with additional hardware.

After trying to copy screenshots of several Android devices to my computer, it became obvious to me how complicate copying files to or from your Android device can be. It seems that Android is going in the same direction as Apple – locking users out of the file system of their devices. Personally I think this might be based on a good idea, but it’s definitely turning into something bad.

The method to copy files to and from an Android devices depends on quite a few factors, including but not limited to the Android version, the Operating System of your computer, the Android customizations by the device manufacturer, the [lack of] available tools, etc.

In this rather extensive article I’ll try to cover numerous methods and provide some troubleshooting tips.

How do you determine what version of Android your Phone or Tablet is running?

Having worked with a few Android devices running different Android versions, it has become obvious to me that it’s not always as obvious how to determine the exact Android version your device is running.  Unfortunately, for some of our guides you might need to know what version your device is running, as certain methods rely on particular versions.

So in this article I’ll guide you through a few methods on how to determine what Android version you’re looking at.

The process of taking a screenshot on your Android device is most certainly confusing as it works differently with different Android devices and different Android versions.

For newer (Android 4.0 and newer) it’s supposed to be uniform, but for older devices it’s a wild guess what it might be.

In this article I’ll try to show you how to take a screenshot with most Android based devices.

Apple iOS users should read this article instead.