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The XBMC name may be going away, but the developers of the popular cross-platform media center haven’t stopped working on the software. The next version will be called Kodi 14.0 and you can take the latest pre-release build for a spin now. It’ll mostly be a stability release which means it’s designed to offer improved performance and reliability rather than shiny new features, but it does add support for new video codecs that’ll allow you to shrink the amount of storage space used by your video collection without compromising on quality.
It also looks like you’ll be able to use Kodi with Google’s upcoming Android TV platform. A developer has already compiled a build of XBMC to work with the Android TV app launcher.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web. You can keep up on the latest news by following Liliputing on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
- Kodi (XBMC) 14.0 Alpha 2 released
The latest alpha of the media center app formerly known as XBMC features support for H.265 and VP9 video decoding as well as hardware-accelerated 4K video playback on Android devices with Amlogic’s S802 processor. [Kodi] - XBMC media center app for Android compiled to work with Google’s new Android TV launcher
Speaking of XBMC/Kodi, if you want to run it on Android TV, now you can… assuming you have one of Google’s Android TV developer kits. [+Keyan Mobli] - Report: Samsung scrapping the Tizen-powered Samsung Z smartphone to focus on entry-level models instead
Samsung has repeatedly delayed the launch of its first smartphone designed to run the Tizen operating system. Now there’s a report suggesting the company is canceling that phone altogether in order to focus on cheaper, entry-level devices which will ship with Tizen instead. [Tizen Experts] - How to root an Android device with a Rockchip RK3288 processor
Tablets and TV boxes with Rockchip’s new ARM Cortex-A17 processor are now shipping. Here’s how to root them. [Geekbuying] - Next version of Windows (Windows 9?) will likely include Cortana voice assistant
Cortana is the digital voice assistant that made its debut on Windows Phone recently. Soon it might be available on laptop, desktop, and tablet systems running Windows Threshold/Windows 9/Windows whatever the next version is called. [Neowin] - Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 heading to Sprint’s Sprint Spark LTE network Aug 15th
Sprint’s Spark network supports speeds up to 60 Mbps. The Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 isn’t the most spectacular tablet around… but it’s the first to support Spark. [Sprint] - Did Amazon just update the Kindle Paperwhite?
With no official announcement, it looks like Amazon is offering a new model with 4GB of storage rather than 2GB in some markets. [The Digital Reader]
I would be interested in your opinions of the Android TV you have been testing out.
Hello. Your Tizen link goes to a chromebook review. TIA
Whoops. That should be fixed now!