Today, many users own a media player which shares movies, images and music via the DLNA protocol. This is quite useful, as it allows you to browse your media collection stored in one place with various devices like TVs, PCs, laptops and so on. You might be interested in accessing it from your Android smartphone or tablet as well. Today we will see how it can be done.
Category: Android
10 reasons to replace your Android file manager with Total Commander
Everyone I know has Android devices so today I am going to tell you how you can make file management on Android a whole lot better. There are many different file managers available for Android. Stock Android (Google's version) comes with a simple file manager. Many OEMs (LG, Samsung, HTC etc) ship some customized implementation of that file manager or their own replacement app. The Play Store is full of free and paid apps. However, I prefer the one called Total Commander over all of them. Here are my 10 reasons why you should use Total Commander.
VLC stable is finally available for Android
VLC, one of the best cross platform open source media players which supports all popular formats without codecs, is finally available as a stable release for Android. So, now VLC supports Windows, Windows Phone, Linux, Mac OS X, iOS and Android. VLC is the only media player app I use on my PCs. Let's take a closer look at its Android version.
No more updates for Android Browser, switch to Firefox – here’s why
No matter which software OS you use, it is important that you keep yourself protected from security vulnerabilities otherwise you can get hacked. Developers of the Metasploit framework, which is a penetration testing software, noticed that updates to the WebView component (the one used by Android's HTML renderer) have been discontinued for all Android versions prior to 4.4 (KitKat) and 5.0 (Lollipop). Google has thus decided to abandon lots of users with older Android devices (all 4.x versions except 4.4), even though the version of WebView in them has security vulnerabilities. Here is what you should do to harden your security.
Quickly search installed apps, contacts, bookmarks and music by name in Android with Quickdroid
If you use your Android phone or tablet for long periods of time, it must be having tons of apps installed. Both, the home screen and the app drawer, which contains the full list of apps, become cluttered and it becomes difficult to locate the app you want by scrolling through the many pages of the home screen or the app drawer. Here is a nice little free app which can solve this issue. It offers a very fast search for apps, music, contacts, bookmarks and other phone data by typing. It is called Quickdroid and besides being free, its source code is also open.
Tips on how to save the capacity of your phone or tablet battery for a longer time
Modern lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries which are used in smartphones and tablets are longer lasting than their nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) counterparts, but still require some care. Everyone would want to prolong the battery life of their device as long as possible. In this article, I would like to share some lesser known tips to help you prolong the battery life of your mobile devices on a single recharge as well as extend the overall life of the batteries.
Winaero’s essential Android apps – 2014 edition
These days, our digital life has shifted from the traditional desktop PC to mobile devices like laptops, smartphones and tablets. Many people just do not need the classic PC because all they do is some web browsing, gaming and social networks. While Windows dominates in the desktop OS market, Android is the leader in mobile devices. I have 4 different devices running some version of Android - from 4.0.4 to 4.3. Today I would like to share with you the best Android apps I use which I consider essential.
How to enable Lock screen rotation in Android 4.3 and 4.4
If you own a phone or tablet with Android 4.3 or 4.4, you might be facing the issue that your lock screen does not support rotation. I noticed this when I upgraded my Nook HD+ to the latest CyanogenMod based on Android 4.4. The lock screen was always in portrait mode. While phone users might not consider this behavior problematic because phones are mostly used by holding them vertically, tablet owners might prefer landscape mode most of the time. If you have rooted your device, you can perform a simple trick described below to enable lock screen rotation.
Upd: according to our reader Tapatio, this trick also works on CyanogenMod 12.1 android version 5.1.1.
Fix: Android ringtones are listed twice
Recently I played with my Android phone and added back some OEM ringtones which were removed from the custom firmware I use. After doing that, all my ringtones were listed twice in the sound profile. This was strange, because I had not added duplicates of existing files. Every file had a single copy on my Android phone. Thankfully, I found out the solution and would like to share it with you.
How to download APK files of Android apps directly from Google Play without Google account
Google Play is a common way to install apps on Android devices. Almost all Android phones and tablets are shipping with Google Play preinstalled. The content in the Google Play store is not limited to software. It also includes books, music and other goodies which vary from country to country. If you own an Android phone, probably you have it preinstalled. One limitation of the Google Play store is that you cannot download APK files of the desired app directly. In this article I will show you how you can directly get the APK file which installs the app from Google Play.
