Articles about Streaming

It has been a little while since we heard anything from TVAddons, the Kodi addons site that has been embroiled in a series of copyright cases. Recently the site launched its Github Browser as part of its continued attempts to provide "resilient and decentralized" links to Kodi addons.

Now TVAddons has launched Feeds for Git Browser, a new feature that makes it possible for anyone to create a list of their favorite Kodi addons and then share them with friends, family and followers.

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There are so many streaming apps and services to choose from, it can be hard to know where to look when you want to watch something. With its latest update to Google Play Movies & TV, Google may just have come up with the answer for Android users.

The update means that when you search for a show within the app, you'll be told which app or service you can use to watch it -- regardless of whether you're a subscriber or not. In all, there's support for over 20 services -- including the likes of Hulu, HBO, ABC and Showtime -- but, for the moment at least, Netflix is not available.

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The volume of digital information in the world is growing at a scarily fast rate. In fact 90 percent of the digital data that exists worldwide today was created within the last two years -- and 2.5 quintillion bytes of extra data are created each and every day.

We browse websites, stream music and video, and post on social media all of which contributes to this deluge. But how did data get to be such a key part of modern life?

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Kodi is excellent software. I mean, an open source and cross-platform media center -- what's not to love? Hell, it can even be used to emulate classic video games! And even though I don't do it, I know it is popular with the piracy crowd, thanks to easy-to-install add-ons that allow free streaming of paid content. I'm not judging -- I know many of y'all are hurting financially, so do what you've got to. I prefer to just watch movies when they come on TBS, TNT, and the like, but I digress.

The next version of Kodi is called "Leia," and it is currently under development. With that said, you can run pre-release versions now with great success. If you are waiting for an official "stable" version of Kodi 18, however, you are probably wondering how the development is going. Well, according to a new blog post from the developers, everything is coming along swimmingly. In fact, they have shared some details and statistics about version 18. Some particularly interesting aspects? Kodi 18 will get Google Assistant support for Android and the ability to handle 8K video.

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Kodi is a superb, and very flexible free media center, but in the past year or so legal crackdowns, court cases, vanishing add-ons and other bad publicity have made people wary of it, and understandably so. It’s not illegal to use Kodi, but installing add-ons that let you stream copyrighted content for free could get you into trouble.

In the wake of all this bad publicity, rival streaming service Mobdro has been gaining in popularity. The app can be installed on any Android device, including phones, tablets, Amazon's Fire TV Stick, and Google's Chromecast 2.

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Super Bowl LII is finally here! It will begin at 6pm ET today. Once again, Tom Brady and the Patriots will be one of the teams competing, but this year, they will face an unlikely opponent -- the Eagles. Why do I say the Eagles are unlikely? During the regular season, the team lost its starting quarterback, Carson Wentz, to injury -- not many expected the backup, Nick Foles, to take them to the big game. Against all odds, however, we will, in fact, witness New England play against Philadelphia.

For Super Bowl 2018, the game will be broadcast on NBC. If you have cable or satellite, you will have no problem watching it. Heck, if you have a strong enough signal you can even get it for free over the air. But what if you are a cord-cutter that gets poor NBC OTA signal strength? Do not panic. Roku has partnered with NBC to stream Super Bowl 52 for free -- no login required. In other words, watching the big game is easier than ever this year.

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Super Bowl Weekend is officially here, and I am beyond excited. As a big New York Jets fan, I don't care much for the Eagles or Patriots, but I will root for the former as I strongly dislike the latter. Football aside, I also enjoy the commercials, the halftime show, and of course, eating buffalo chicken wings.

As an animal lover, I also love watching some other programming on Super Bowl Sunday -- the Puppy Bowl, and to a lesser extent, the Kitten Bowl. If you aren't familiar, these pet-themed Bowl games are essentially just cute animals playing on miniaturized football fields. These whimsical games are fun to watch, but more importantly, they usually raise awareness about pet adoption and similar causes. If you have a Roku device, I am happy to say you can use it to stream both the Puppy and Kitten Bowl.

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The massively prolific Neil Young has just made his entire musical back catalog available to stream free of charge. Obsessed with audio quality -- you might well remember Young's Pono music player and streaming service, as well as his hatred of the MP3 format -- tracks are provided at an extremely high bit rate.

Of course, this is not a completely selfless offering from the Canadian musician. The free availability of tracks is a time-limited offer -- it's really little more than an advertising stunt for his paid-for Xstream Music subscription service.

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There are lots of sites and tools out there that can be used to rip content from YouTube, saving them either as videos or MP3s. Predictably, this is something that the content owners -- record labels in particular -- take issue with.

YouTube-MP3 recently shut up shop following pressure from the music industry, and a number of MP3 ripping sites were lined up as the next targets. Apparently pre-empting any legal action that might be taken against them, MP3Juices.cc and YtMp3.cc have started to block traffic from the UK.

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Roku has started to clamp down on pirate channels such as XTV. In addition to the channel closures, Roku is also displaying an FBI anti-piracy warning to those who try to access them.

In recent months the focus has been on piracy on Kodi, but the problem also exists on other platforms. Roku closed down the XTV channel -- which was "known and loved by hordes of Roku users looking for free access to cable channels and popular network shows" -- and it didn't take long for it to reappear as XTV-2. This too has now been closed down, and the anti-piracy warnings have started.

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TVAddons is famous -- some would say infamous, even notorious -- in Kodi circles. The controversial Kodi addons site has been the subject of a lawsuit and even abuse from Kodi itself. Last week the site was mentioned in the Online Notorious Markets report produced by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) -- and TVAddons is not happy.

The report refers to the site as a "piracy add-on repository," but TVAddons is quick to point out that it has never received a single DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint from MPAA members or affiliates. The site accuses the MPAA of deciding to "drag our reputation through the mud."

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Taking a trip to a sparsely populated desert before it becomes inundated with zombies. Being immersed inside the new HBO series Westworld. Doing odd jobs alongside everyone's favorite time-traveling duo of Rick and Morty.

Those were just some of the experiences for which fans at New York Comic Con waited up to several hours in line...last year. And they all required virtually no booth space.

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Plex -- the company behind the eponymous media server software -- is rolling out an update that automatically adjusts video quality during playback. This is a feature that was previously only available to Plex Pass subscribers, but now all users can enjoy it free of charge.

At the same time, Plex is also introducing a new performance-enhancing option to help justify the cost of a subscription. Hardware-Accelerated Streaming does very much what you would expect -- assuming you have the correct CPU or GPU, that is.

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Microsoft has announced plans to close down its Groove Music Pass subscription service. The company is also going to kill off the ability to purchase music from the Windows Store.

Microsoft is partnering with Spotify, and offering a seamless migration from Groove Music to its former competitor. The cull is coming on December 31, and after this date the Groove Music app will no longer offer the option to stream, purchase, and download music.

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Roku has today unveiled the latest additions to its media streaming line-up, adding features such as voice control and 4K support. The company also slashes $30 off the price of its top-of-the-range Roku Ultra box.

With prices starting at just $29.99 for the Roku Express, there's something to suit every pocket, but it's arguably the updated Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick+ that are the most interesting.

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