For those of you who are regular followers of me either here or on Facebook or Twitter, it’s no surprise to y’all that I’m a geek. I now have a new way to geek out, and that would be with an Android TV box.
A little history here. I have Apple TV pucks and LOVE them. Use them a lot, because I stream Netflix through them, as well as movies and TV shows I’ve purchased through iTunes. I also use them to stream stuff from our iPads (like our Amazon Prime movies) right to the TV.
A friend of mine turned me on to the Android TV boxes by gifting one to me. Which I honestly, I had not really heard of these little gems before. I’d heard of Roku and Kodi and stuff like that, and I have experience with Chromecast, but I didn’t know what the heck this was when they were telling me about it. (They’re a geek, too, and were like, “You HAVE TO SEE THIS!”) Then it showed up in my mailbox. LOL (Yes, I love my friends soooo freaking hard! 🙂 )
This is the one I have. (Yes, that’s an Amazon affiliate link.) I also have this qwerty keyboard rechargeable remote control (which has, believe me, made my life a LOT easier with it).
So, what exactly does this little thing do? Oh, my friends. If you are someone who only had Internet and you don’t have cable GET THIS RIGHT NOW. Naooowww. NOOOOOOOWWWWWW. It allows you to put add-ons that will allow you to view video content. (Yes, including your existing Netflix account.) You can get sports, movies, TV shows–from all over the word.
CAVEAT: Some of the content is NOT legal. (Like movies that are still in the theaters.) So please do not be a dick and torrent those. There is, no kidding, more LEGAL content (just like the legally free e-books on Kindle) than you’ll ever be able to watch. Some of the networks have their own apps, etc. There’s even one for NASA TV.
You can also add your Google account stuff to it, so if you buy movies, songs, etc. through Google Play, you can access that content that way. Pictures, games, e-mail, Internet, etc.
Think of Kodi as the system software, and then you can add other things to it. So think of this like a jail-breaked (jail-broken?) Android phone. It’s kind of like that. You hook it up to your Internet, connect it to your TV, and then be prepared to have your mind blown. I’m going to work up some basic tutorials for how to use it (in general, because if you have a box that’s different than mine it might vary, but will be similar). It can be a little tricky to add the add-ons if you aren’t used to doing it. Once you figure it out, you’ll see it’s not too bad.
I’m not getting rid of my cable subscription anytime soon. We just switched from Verizon Fios/Frontier over to Bright House and got The Weather Channel back, and no way in heck am I giving Jim Cantore up this soon. LOL Besides, we watch local TV channels for news and weather, etc. But for those of you who have cut the cord completely, you might want to take a hard look at this.
In Case You Missed It
Tymber Dalton Special Collection 1: Three-book box set (Dead Moon Rising, Sunset Hearts, Sarasota Steam) is now available.
Tony’s Collection (Suncoast Society Box Set) contains Domme by Default, The Reluctant Dom, and The Denim Dom.
Bleacke Shifter Box Set 1: Contains Bleacke’s Geek, Geek Chic, and A Bleacke Wind
The Great Turning (book 1) is now available in print and e-book.