Amazon’s Fire and Fire HD tablets ship with a fork of Google’s Android operating system called Fire OS. For the most part that means they have a custom user interface that’s designed to highlight Amazon apps and services. But it also means that instead of the Google Play Store, they ship with the Amazon Appstore […]
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How to bulk download Humble Bundle eBook purchases
Humble Bundle‘s eBook bundles are a great way to save money on books, digital comics, manga, or audiobooks. The company got its start by offering bundles of video games for low prices, but these days the company also offers software bundles from time to time, and lots of eBook bundles. For instance, I got the […]
How to install Google Play on the Amazon Fire HD 10 (9th-gen)
Amazon’s Fire tablets have a well-deserved reputation for offering decent bang for the buck. They have decent displays, long battery life, and affordable price tags. But they also come with an operating system called Fire OS, which is Amazon’s custom version of Android. Instead of the Google Play Store, there’s the Amazon Appstore. And while […]
uBlock Origin: How to hide Google’s script blocking warning for websites using Funding Choices
23 Comments on uBlock Origin: How to hide Google’s script blocking warning for websites using Funding ChoicesIf you’re using uBlock Origin with your web browser to block ads and other scripts, then you may come across messages from time to time asking you to disable your ad blocker because it’s interfering with the page. And sometimes that’s the last thing you want to do. I was recently alerted to the fact […]
Easily boot multiple operating systems from a USB flash drive with Ventoy
There are a bunch of tools that let you load an operating system onto a USB flash drive, allowing you to boot from that drive and either run or install the OS. But most of those tools are only designed to support one operating system at a time. Ventoy is a new tool that turns […]
How to install Fortnite on Android (now that it’s gone from the Play Store)
The developer of the wildly popular battle royale game Fortnite launched their own battle against Apple and Google this week. In a well-orchestrated series of moves, Epic intentionally broke the rules of the App Store and Google Play, which resulted in Fortnite being kicked out of both stores… and in response Epic file lawsuits against […]
Google Meet shortcuts added to Gmail app for Android (Here’s how to disable it)
Video communication tools have become more important than ever during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Zoom has exploded in popularity. Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have added new features to their video chat and video conferencing tools. And Google decided to add Google Meet shortcuts to the Gmail app for Android so you won’t forget that Google […]
How to disable Android auto app updates from the Google Play Store (for all apps or just some)
1 Comment on How to disable Android auto app updates from the Google Play Store (for all apps or just some)Automatic Android app updates are usually a good thing. Developers can make new features, bug fixes, or other changes available to users by uploading a new version of their app to the Google Play Store and most Android phones and tablets will download and install those updates automatically. But there are a few reasons you […]
How to use an SD card with Amazon’s Fire tablets
Every tablet Amazon Fire tablet released in the past few years has featured a microSD card slot, which is a nice thing to have if you’re using a tablet that may have as little as 8GB of built-in storage. You can pick up just about any Class 10 or UHS microSD card to add up […]
Amazon Fire HD 8 (2020): How to disable Amazon apps and features
So you’ve installed the Google Play Store on Amazon’s Fire HD 8 (2020) tablet. What’s next? While you can’t yet root the tablet or replace the operating system with a custom ROM, you can disable a bunch of Amazon apps and features. Don’t need the Amazon Appstore, want to disable the Weather, Prime Video, or Kindle […]
How to install Google Play on the Amazon Fire HD 8 (2020)
Amazon’s Fire tablets offer some decent bang for the buck — they’re inexpensive devices with decent displays and reasonably good performance. But while the tablets run an Android-based operating system called Fire OS, they don’t come with the Google Play Store or popular Google apps like Gmail, YouTube, or Google Maps. But it’s pretty easy […]
How to unlock an Android phone with a broken screen
A friend recently dropped his phone and ended up with a cracked display. That isn’t always a death knell for a smartphone, but in this case it meant that he couldn’t unlock the phone because the in-display fingerprint sensor stopped working and the phone wouldn’t recognize his PIN number when he tried typing it. That […]