It’s here. You can
download a stable version of XBMC for Android right now. This isn’t a
lightweight version of XBMC made specifically for tablets – it’s the full
version of XBMC. So you can add your music and video collections and browse the
Internet.
The interface, designed
for a TV, probably won’t work well on your tiny smartphone screen – but it’s
just about perfect for a tablet. For the unfamiliar, XBMC is a media center app
that sorts your media for you and makes it simple to browse everything from
your couch. Movies, TV shows and music are all given artwork and metadata –
meaning your media looks almost as good while you’re browsing it as it does
when you’re watching it.
But XBMC does more than
play your media; it can play media from a variety of web sources, thanks to a
seemingly endless supply of extensions. TV shows from Hulu and sites like it,
as well as live news from around the world.
XBMC might not work on
every Android device; check this list if you’re unsure. Also note that XBMC is
not on Google Play, so to use it you’re going to need the ability to install
APK files on your phone. On some devices this means rooting; on mine (ASUS
Transformer) it does not.
Watch TV Shows Without
A Subscription
Love TV? Check out Free
Cable, which scrapes content from the websites of all the major networks plus a
wide variety of cable channels, including Comedy Central, The History Channel,
PBS, Adult Swim and A&E. This is content you can easily watch for free on
your computer, but which occasionally doesn’t work on Android tablets for
technical (no Adobe flash) or legal (someone decided you shouldn’t) reasons.
I used this to watch
the most recent version of The Daily Show on my tablet, and it worked
beautifully. If you have trouble, use the settings to turn down the max bitrate
and all should be well.
Find Free Cable in the
Bluecop repo for XBMC.
Oh, and this might be
USA-only, but browse the XBMC repos and you’ll find plugins for your area.
There’s iPlayer for the UK, for example. Explore and you’ll probably find
something, or just keep reading.
Watch Live News From
All Over Earth
Do you want to quickly
switch between a variety of live news stations? XBMC offers a variety of live
news streams; all you need to do is find the appropriate plugin for the job.
Learn more here - how
to watch the news online using XBMC.
NaviX, 1Channel &
Every Video You Could Want
Do you want access to
even more media? Be sure to try out NaviX, the ultimate media source of XBMC.
This massive repository of user-submitted media links includes live streams, TV
shows and more then a few movies.
If that doesn’t work
out for you, check out 1Channel for XBMC. It’s questionable from a legal
standpoint, but with it you can watch any show or movie you want instantly.
Beautiful Organization
For TV Shows and Music
Do you already have an
extensive media collection? Assuming there’s room on your Android device, you
can browse it all from XBMC – and it will look gorgeous when you do.
If you’d rather not
store your media on your device you can always add network shares. It won’t
work when you’re away from your home network, but if all you want is to watch
your videos on your tablet it’s a great idea.
Read more about adding
media sources to XBMC.
Coming Soon
(Hopefully): Hulu!
There’s a Hulu Plus app
for Android, but those who want to watch Hulu’s free content on their Android
devices are out of luck. Until now.
A readily available
Hulu extension for XBMC brings Hulu’s free content to Android with or without a
Hulu Plus account.
Browse your favorite
shows, see your subscriptions and watch as much TV as you want. Read more about
Hulu for XBMC here. This one’s not working on Android right now, but hopefully
it will eventually. Find Hulu in the Bluecop repo for XBMC.
So Much More…
Of course, there’s so
much more here to explore. YouTube, Reddit, Miro’s directory and TED can all be
found in XBMC’s default extension repo, so be sure to explore that as soon as
you install XBMC. Also be sure to check out these articles for even more
tweaks:
5 Amazing Addons for
XBMC Media Center
Add Podcast Feeds to
XBMC Directly
Again: you can download
XBMC for Android right now at XBMC.org as an APK file.
0 comments:
Post a Comment