Google Android catch-all

I mean I've just been using this HDMI cable that I got for $11 for like 3 years to do the screen mirroring thing.

But you guys have fun playing with your wireless toys.

Stele wrote:

I mean I've just been using this HDMI cable that I got for $11 for like 3 years to do the screen mirroring thing.

But you guys have fun playing with your wireless toys. :D

If I had it my way, the whole world would be wireless!

I'm still waiting for someone to invent a wireless electric extension cord.

Nevin73 wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:

FYI for those of you with Chromecasts, Google has enabled screen mirroring from some Android devices to your TV. It's pretty neat.

Yeah I tried it out last night. It even brings over the audio so it is a neat way to play music if you don't have a bluetooth speaker. Nothing like Tiny Death Star on a 42" TV.

It does lag, however, so in its current incantation, I don't think action-y type games will work that well.

It is definitely good for turn-based games. I used it to play a round of Star Realms and it was nice to see the card art and text on my 53 inch TV instead of the 5 inch phone screen.

Speaking of the Chromecast, do those of you who own it like it/recommend it?
I'm tempted, and the $35 tag is in the "impulse purchase" for tech for me...

Taharka wrote:

Speaking of the Chromecast, do those of you who own it like it/recommend it?
I'm tempted, and the $35 tag is in the "impulse purchase" for tech for me...

Yes - it's taken the place of the PS3 as our main tool for getting media on the TV. That either of us can use our phones as remote controls makes a big difference. The only thing I feel deprived of is Amazon Instant.

Tanglebones wrote:
Taharka wrote:

Speaking of the Chromecast, do those of you who own it like it/recommend it?
I'm tempted, and the $35 tag is in the "impulse purchase" for tech for me...

Yes - it's taken the place of the PS3 as our main tool for getting media on the TV. That either of us can use our phones as remote controls makes a big difference. The only thing I feel deprived of is Amazon Instant.

If Instant is accessible on Android, screen mirroring should allow you to cast to your TV. I am not part of that ecosystem though, so I don't know about their Android support.

Nah, no Instant Access yet. Which is probably a shot in the foot, just to push their Tablets some more.

I love my chromecast. For a couple of years now I've had my LCD TV hooked up to my computer as a second monitor via a long VGA cable. But the process to watch anything on it is kind of a pain (switch TV input, disable headphone audio output, turn on audio receiver for sound, move browser window over to TV, bring browser window back so I can actually read it, etc.). Chromecast is like two steps with Netflix.

Ok. I'm sold. I'll buy it tomorrow with my paycheck.
Thanks all! Maybe now I'll get around to watching some of that Anime!

EriktheRed wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:
Taharka wrote:

Speaking of the Chromecast, do those of you who own it like it/recommend it?
I'm tempted, and the $35 tag is in the "impulse purchase" for tech for me...

Yes - it's taken the place of the PS3 as our main tool for getting media on the TV. That either of us can use our phones as remote controls makes a big difference. The only thing I feel deprived of is Amazon Instant.

If Instant is accessible on Android, screen mirroring should allow you to cast to your TV. I am not part of that ecosystem though, so I don't know about their Android support.

It's not accessible on Android. Super annoying.

You can also cast from tabs from Chrome on your PC to your Chromecast. That might allow you to watch Instant on your TV.

Since this is getting a bit off topic, we do have a thread for Chromecast.

EriktheRed wrote:

You can also cast from tabs from Chrome on your PC to your Chromecast. That might allow you to watch Instant porn on your TV.

Since this is getting a bit off topic, we do have a thread for Chromecast.

Fixed.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:
Taharka wrote:

Speaking of the Chromecast, do those of you who own it like it/recommend it?
I'm tempted, and the $35 tag is in the "impulse purchase" for tech for me...

Yes - it's taken the place of the PS3 as our main tool for getting media on the TV. That either of us can use our phones as remote controls makes a big difference. The only thing I feel deprived of is Amazon Instant.

If Instant is accessible on Android, screen mirroring should allow you to cast to your TV. I am not part of that ecosystem though, so I don't know about their Android support.

It's not accessible on Android. Super annoying.

Amazon Instant plays in my phone's browser. Chrome I think.

But it's finicky, and much easier to use the PS3. Or my PC with a long HDMI cable.

Or use the wife's ipad since it has a native app.

Pretty obvious that Amazon doesn't release the Instant app for google so that their own tablets with have something to sell.

There's a plugin for XBMC for Amazon video, I wonder if one could use that with the Android XBMC build.

*Legion* wrote:

There's a plugin for XBMC for Amazon video, I wonder if one could use that with the Android XBMC build.

That's a custom rom, right?

Wait, there's no Amazon Instant app for Android AT ALL?! No way to sideload one? I thought everyone was just talking about Chromecast streaming.

PaladinTom wrote:

Wait, there's no Amazon Instant app for Android AT ALL?! No way to sideload one? I thought everyone was just talking about Chromecast streaming.

No they make the app for ipad and for kindle fire. Well, I assume it's an app on fire, as I don't have one.

You can use the browser to force full web site and make it work usually. But fullscreen isn't always pretty and stuff.

So... I rooted my tablet last night, still couldn't move files to the SD card. So I used an app from the app store which said it would unlock the potential to move to the SD card (again). Installed it, ran it, said it worked fine... Then I got a message that my SD card was corrupted and would I like to format it? >.<
Naturally, in the grand scheme of finger waggling, I wasn't keeping backups, so I am now on the ever fun task of pulling everything from the card before I reformat it. Which I can do thanks to some free programs online, but still... >.<

Also, although my phone is also rooted, I cannot get the hotspot functionality to work. Sprint wants to make money off of it, so even apps that say they'll work with root capabilities get shut down by Sprint.

Getting more and more annoyed with this.

I am under the impression that if you have Sprint or AT&T and want free tethering, you can install Cyanogenmod or another custom rom that supports tethering. Haven't done so yet myself, though.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I am under the impression that if you have Sprint or AT&T and want free tethering, you can install Cyanogenmod or another custom rom that supports tethering. Haven't done so yet myself, though.

I installed cyanogen mod on my last phone and can confim that it works.
However my new phone is the Samsung Note 2, which has the S-pen, which I really like. I'm not 100% sure than cyanogenmod supports s-pen, and until I am 100% sure, I'm not willing to make that attempt.

Taharka wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I am under the impression that if you have Sprint or AT&T and want free tethering, you can install Cyanogenmod or another custom rom that supports tethering. Haven't done so yet myself, though.

I installed cyanogen mod on my last phone and can confim that it works.
However my new phone is the Samsung Note 2, which has the S-pen, which I really like. I'm not 100% sure than cyanogenmod supports s-pen, and until I am 100% sure, I'm not willing to make that attempt.

If you just want the pen for writing, it works just fine. Normal Android supports pen input.

What you lose is the click-button on the pen, any of the Samsung funky junk.

But just as a pen, to touch and write with, it works exactly as expected.

*Legion* wrote:

If you just want the pen for writing, it works just fine. Normal Android supports pen input.

Say what now?

*Legion* wrote:
Taharka wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I am under the impression that if you have Sprint or AT&T and want free tethering, you can install Cyanogenmod or another custom rom that supports tethering. Haven't done so yet myself, though.

I installed cyanogen mod on my last phone and can confim that it works.
However my new phone is the Samsung Note 2, which has the S-pen, which I really like. I'm not 100% sure than cyanogenmod supports s-pen, and until I am 100% sure, I'm not willing to make that attempt.

If you just want the pen for writing, it works just fine. Normal Android supports pen input.

What you lose is the click-button on the pen, any of the Samsung funky junk.

But just as a pen, to touch and write with, it works exactly as expected.

The click button annoys me more often than not, so that's a plus.
I'll do some more digging tonight. I liked Cyanogenmod on my old phone, and I wanted it on the new one, I've just been afraid of losing the S-pen support.

OH! And multi-windows. I can't lose that.

Anyone have a dead simple guide to installing Cyanogen on an s4, btw? Apparently it's not one of the devices that's super easy to install to. I'm already rooted, FWIW.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Anyone have a dead simple guide to installing Cyanogen on an s4, btw? Apparently it's not one of the devices that's super easy to install to. I'm already rooted, FWIW.

If you have a Windows (EDIT: Or Mac!) PC, you can use the installer. It works very well.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I am under the impression that if you have Sprint or AT&T and want free tethering, you can install Cyanogenmod or another custom rom that supports tethering. Haven't done so yet myself, though.

Or you can try WiFi Tether Router. It works great on my rooted stock Note 3.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I am under the impression that if you have Sprint or AT&T and want free tethering, you can install Cyanogenmod or another custom rom that supports tethering. Haven't done so yet myself, though.

If you're rooted on Sprint, you can easily enable tethering on the stock ROM by running something like this this that works on the S4. I assume other phones and carrier versions will have similar.

EverythingsTentative wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I am under the impression that if you have Sprint or AT&T and want free tethering, you can install Cyanogenmod or another custom rom that supports tethering. Haven't done so yet myself, though.

Or you can try WiFi Tether Router. It works great on my rooted stock Note 3.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...

Are you on AT&T? I am. So far the reviews I see all mention Sprint.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I am under the impression that if you have Sprint or AT&T and want free tethering, you can install Cyanogenmod or another custom rom that supports tethering. Haven't done so yet myself, though.

Or you can try WiFi Tether Router. It works great on my rooted stock Note 3.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...

Are you on AT&T? I am. So far the reviews I see all mention Sprint.

Yes, I'm on Sprint. I think it should work with any carrier.

LouZiffer wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Anyone have a dead simple guide to installing Cyanogen on an s4, btw? Apparently it's not one of the devices that's super easy to install to. I'm already rooted, FWIW.

If you have a Windows (EDIT: Or Mac!) PC, you can use the installer. It works very well.

EU S4 owner here, I used the installer a week ago to loose some of that Samsung bloat. Suddenly I got 6 gb more space on my phone!
Most of that was probably cruft that i managed to add myself over the half year i used the phone, but all that Samsung bloat is gone. \o/

On a side note, has anyone on CM 11.0 on the S4 encountered any sound issues? Sometimes I get severe stuttering and have to shutdown my dongle and boot it up again, afterwards it is fine. No issues on the same device before installing/rooting.