Ois & Nix

Goal: I have two Android devices (a smartphone and a streaming box). I wanted to start a Spotify playlist on my streaming box, triggered by an NFC action on my smartphone. The streaming box is connected to my AV receiver, so it was important that the music is not played on my smartphone but on the streaming box. What you need: Two Android devices (e.g. a smartphone which supports NFC and an Android streaming box) NFC tags Tasker AutoRemote Trigger Spotify How it is done: I don't want to go through every step in detail, mostly it is selfexplanatory once you have the different components. On the streaming box: Install Tasker, AutoRemote, Spotify Create the task which should be triggered on the streaming box (e.g. Spotify play - see my other blog posts). Create a new profile in Tasker using AutoRemote on the streaming box to listen to a specific input (e.g. "spot") from the second device. On your mobile phone Install Tasker, AutoRemote, Trigger ...

Goal: I run Spotify on an Android streaming box and I wanted to start a radio station with a shortcut on my keyboard. What you need: Android TV box (e.g. CR11S) Keyboard (e.g. Logitech K400 ) Apps: Spotify Tasker AutoInput (Tasker Plugin) External Keyboard Helper Optional: AutoVoice How it is done: Create the tasks in Tasker to start Spotify, wait a bit, launch AutoInput and then go through the click actions to start the radio station you would like to have. You can download and import this " SpotifyPlay.xml " as an example. IMPORTANT: Please be aware that if Spotify changes the UI of there app, the click actions need to be adapted. The guided mode in AutoInput will help you there. Feel free to improve the xml and let me know. In External Keyboard Helper first define the "application shortcuts", e.g. A0. Then customize your keyboard mappings. Add a new key mapping - press e.g. F1 on your keyboard and then type in A0 in the "normal...

I recently bought a  HiMedia H8 64bit Octa-Core  and want to share my first impressions. This short review is based on firmware version 1.0.7: Audio & Video I mostly use 720p MKV files from an SMB share via WLAN and have no problems with video and audio quality. Dolby digital works fine. One time I noticed some lip-sync issues with Kodi but I now mostly use Mizuu +  MXPlayer  and I am quite happy with it. I have not tested any 3D content. EDIT: The lip-sync issue sometimes happens on MXPlayer and Netflix as well. I could not figure out when unfortunately. The box works in general fine for Netflix or Spotify streaming. Be aware that you will not get Dolby Digital with Netflix for Android. It is not supported. Android & the box in general I am using the normal Google Now launcher. The problem I see here with the current firmware version (1.0.7) is that you don't have a navigation bar on the bottom or a status/notification bar on top. Especially the ...

I am using a very nice smart DNS service: SmartDNSProxy . I can highly recommend it. However, if you install the latest Netflix version on your Android device, Google's DNS servers cannot be avoided - meaning that your smart DNS will not work. There are different options to avoid this: Use an older version of the Netflix app (3.7.1). You can download it here . Configure your router to reroute Google's DNS to your smart DNS servers. Configure iptables in AFWall+ on your rooted Android device. To do this, create a custom script with the following two lines: iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -d 8.8.8.8 -j DNAT --to-destination 54.93.173.153 iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -d 8.8.4.4 -j DNAT --to-destination 54.229.171.243 The destination in this case goes to two  SmartDNSProxy  servers I use Do not forget to take care of the static DNS settings with the same IP addresses on your Android device's WIFI interface

Google recently announced a new bonus scheme for active Google Insiders. You can earn points by writing reviews, uploading pictures, adding new places, correcting information or answer questions. Depending on how many points you have earned, you get certain goodies. For 200+ points you get 1 TB in your Google Drive for 2 years for free. Not a bad deal! In addition, you receive a free gift every year. This time it was a nice Google Insider t-shirt. You can see your points and your level on the Google Maps smartphone app. You will not see it on the Google maps website. Be patient - it can take several weeks to see your extended storage in Google drive after you have reached your level. See also https://www.google.com/local/guides/benefits/