Android TV apps continue to evolve and expand, even as old favorites like Kodi decline.  Here are the SwampGeek recommended Android TV & Fire TV apps for December 2017.        

Click the image to view screenshots of the December 2017 Android TV Apps

Although popular Kodi plugins have disappeared, others have evolved and been renamed in order to continue providing links to content.

New Android apps, also supported by Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, offer good alternatives to the ever popular Kodi, including:

• Terrarium TV - probably the best alternative, but must be downloaded from backup sources as the GitHub download has been removed
• Stremio - available in the Play Store
• Pluto TV (untested)
• Cloud TV (untested)
• TubiTV (untested)
• YouTube
• (commercial) Amazon Prime Instant Video (not available in the Play Store for Android phones, tables and TV boxes for newer Android versions)
• (commercial) Netflix
• (commercial) WatchESPN (requires cable subscription account login)

Many other apps can enhance your Android TV for Amazon Fire devices...

Cybersecurity Awareness Tip 30: Just Say No to Bloatware

Many software developers and distributors see downloading and installing software as revenue making opportunities. This unwanted and potentially harmful software has come to be known as "bloatware." Most smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops and other computer come loaded with bloatware. Usually, you can remove preloaded bloatware, though it's not always easy. Microsoft is notorious for installing bloatware - sometimes without asking and without being able to remove it. For 8 days, Microsoft preloaded a password manager with a plugin vulnerability on Windows 10 installations.  CNET's Download.com was a major distributor of software in the early 2010's, when it was caught wrapping downloads in bloatware.

Just Say No to Bloatware

Although you can usually remove bloatware after the fact, why not just say no before it's installed? Bloatware promoters often disguise optional installation through "custom" installation techiques or fake download links.  Some give you the choice to install extras, usually with a convincing pitch and the default selection to install.  Just say, "No."

Resources

• How-To Geek's How to Avoid Installing Junk Programs When Downloading Free Software
• Norton's Bloatware: Why It's a Concern and How to Remove It

The great, simple, single-file PHP file manager, File Thingie, made it really easy to manage files to download from a web server by simply loading the File Thingie index.php into a folder.  Sadly, File Thingie disappeared between August 12, 2015 and September 7, 2015.  As PHP changed, File Thingie stopped working (I think with PHP 8.x, but test for yourself if you need to know).  Since I still have a need for simple file management, I looked for alternatives and find Tiny File Manager.

Like its predecessor File Thingie, Tiny File Manager enables users to securely manage files using a single PHP file.  However, unlike File Thingie, Tiny File Manager enables editing of all files in the root folder, rather than all files in and below the current folder.  Let's say you want to use a /documents subfolder to allow users to upload documents (e.g. PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents and Powerpoint presentations).  By default, even if you load tinyfilemanager.php into the documents folder, users will have access to the folders above /documents.

Changing 2 configuration parameters ($root_path and $root_url) limits tinyfilemanager to the current folder and below and correctly displays direct links:

// Root path for file manager
// use absolute path of directory i.e: '/var/www/folder' or $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/folder'
#$root_path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
$root_path = __DIR__;

// Root url for links in file manager.Relative to $http_host. Variants: '', 'path/to/subfolder'
// Will not working if $root_path will be outside of server document root
#$root_url = '';
$root_url = preg_replace("!^${_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']}!", '', __DIR__);