"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
07/16/2015 at 13:27 • Filed to: None
4
14|
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
07/16/2015 at 13:27 • Filed to: None | 4
| 14 |
Amazon Instant Video on Android is a fucking joke . It is worthless in so many ways. Amazon wants to crow about how they are going to do amazing things for video quality like !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but they can’t even give a fully functional app to a huge segment of the market: Android users.
Amazon’s Fire tablets and phones run a modified version of Android with a custom interface and all of the Google stuff stripped out. On any Amazon tablet with HD or HDX in the name, you get an Amazon Instant Video app very much like how one would expect such a thing to act: you can use the app to browse for content, and watch it in full HD quality.
But if you have a regular, not-Amazon Android device, Amazon is fucking you over.
Installation
You can’t install Amazon Instant Video through the Google Play Store, even though Amazon puts all their other apps there. You can only install Amazon Instant Video through the Amazon Appstore. Assuming your particular device didn’t come with the Amazon Appstore pre-installed, here’s the process for installing Amazon Instant Video:
Open your device’s security settings and check the box to allow !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (i.e. outside the Google Play Store).
Go to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! page and download the .apk file for Amazon Appstore.
Install the Amazon Appstore.
Using the Amazon Appstore, search for Amazon Instant Video and install it.
Go back to your security settings and un-check the box for allowing apps from unknown sources. This breaks automatic updates of Amazon Appstore apps but at least it doesn’t leave you as vulnerable to malware.
Fucking hell.
Choosing Content
Ok, so the app’s installed, let’s pick something to watch! But the Amazon Instant Video app doesn’t have an interface for browsing content .
On a phone, when you open the Amazon Instant Video app, it takes you to the Instant Video section of the main Amazon app. Why this couldn’t be within the Instant Video app, I dunno, but at least it works for the most part.
On a tablet, you have no such luck. There’s no Instant Video section in the Amazon app for tablets. When you open the app it opens the desktop version of the Amazon Instant Video website in Chrome. You hit a ‘watch now’ link which opens the video in the Instant Video app.
Video Quality
On every Android device I’ve tried to use this stupid app, video looks like shit. That’s because Amazon Instant Video on Android !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . It does not look good. Click to expand the screenshot below, and you’ll see all the glorious pixelization and lack of detail that you’d expect from an SD video stream.
Come on Amazon, the app we Android users want
ALREADY EXISTS
. Quit this bullshit game of keep-away and put it in the Google Play Store already. You’re never going to convince me to buy a Fire tablet this way.
R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
> Textured Soy Protein
07/16/2015 at 13:47 |
|
Seriously is the most basic bitch shit ever. Even if you mod a kindle to cmod it is still this gigantic quag-fuck-mire to get it to run. If amazon wasn’t trying to pull an Apple with their shitty mega proprietary devices they might have sold better.
Stapleface-Now Hyphenated!
> Textured Soy Protein
07/16/2015 at 14:59 |
|
I’ve been reading your ongoing tablet saga, perhaps your wants just aren’t realistic? This is for putzing around in bed or on the go, why do you really expect a fully immersive experience with a tablet? It’s not like it’s a 70” 4k LED.
Granted, Amazon should allow everyone access to the good version of the app, but why would they? You're (maybe not necessarily you, but people in general) going to watch it, so what do they care?
KirkyV
> Textured Soy Protein
07/16/2015 at 15:02 |
|
I just bought a new iPad to replace my old Android tablet - wanted a bigger screen than the Nexus 7, couldn’t find any decent 9+ Android options beyond the super overpriced Z4, and I got a really good deal - and I’ve been having so many, ‘Why is this so much worse than the version I’m used to?’ app moments that isn’t even funny.
Comixology, Pushbullet, Evernote and YouTube are the main offenders so far. I also haven’t been able to find a Twitter app as good as Fenix.
|
Textured Soy Protein
> Stapleface-Now Hyphenated!
07/16/2015 at 15:34 |
|
I don’t expect a tablet to be a 70” 4k tv. Here’s what I want:
Nice screen
Hardware that is powerful enough to last through a few years worth of software updates
Software that is updated on a regular basis and not bogged down with bloat
HD streaming video from the services I pay for (Netflix & Amazon Prime)
None of that sounds crazy to me. But...
The Galaxy Tab S 10.5 has an amazing screen, out-of-date hardware, shitty software, and SD-only Amazon Instant Video.
The Nexus 9 has super powerful hardware, and will get pure Android updates for a long time, but has a smallish screen and SD-only Amazon Instant Video.
The iPad Air 2 has equally strong hardware, Apple is fine with software, HD from both Netflix & Amazon, and a screen that splits the difference between the Tab S 10.5 and Nexus 9. It’s the closest to hitting everything I want, but it’s a lot more expensive and I prefer Android over iOS.
My magical mythical device is the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 screen, the hardware and software from the Nexus 9, the cameras from the iPad Air 2, and the Fire HDX’s Amazon Instant Video app.
|
Textured Soy Protein
> KirkyV
07/16/2015 at 15:37 |
|
That’s the thing, I really prefer Android over iOS, but nobody has quite made the right large Android tablet hardware, and Amazon is pulling this BS with their Instant Video Android app.
For Sweden
> Textured Soy Protein
07/16/2015 at 15:44 |
|
I bet it works ok on a Kindle
|
Textured Soy Protein
> For Sweden
07/16/2015 at 15:47 |
|
That is a bet you would win .
|
KirkyV
> Textured Soy Protein
07/16/2015 at 16:00 |
|
Yup. It’s a problem that, so far as I can tell at least - and I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure it out - has no good solution. The thing that ultimately swayed me was a throughly disappointing experience with the Nexus 9, and finding an iPad Air 2 for £150/$230 off retail. I just wish some of this legendary iOS App Store superiority would make itself known, ‘cause so far I’m pretty fucking disappointed. The game selection is good - when you discount the lack of emulators - but that’s it. The OS itself is annoying, too, in a whole variety of ways.
Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> Textured Soy Protein
07/16/2015 at 16:14 |
|
This is literally the reason why I bought a ps3. I found one in amazon private sellers (one of the 2nd gen with 180GB) for around $130. It has a perfectly functional amazon instant app that hooks up via HDMI to my 100 inch projector screen. The bigger problem with the amazon instant app (beyond all of the annoying stuff you mentioned) is that it does not have chromecast functionality! Chromecast is great for youtube and Netflix and other streaming services, but not Amazon. My workaround is effective though so I am happy enough.
|
Textured Soy Protein
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
07/16/2015 at 16:38 |
|
I’ve had the same PS3 since 2009. It’s hooked up to the tv in my living room and Amazon Instant works great on it. It also works totally fine on the latest-gen Roku 2 hooked up to the tv upstairs.
More often than not, my video streaming is through Netflix, which works perfectly on Android.
My only reason for wanting Amazon Instant to work on a tablet is for the occasions that my gf and I start watching something on Amazon on one of the tv’s, then she decides she’d rather we watch it in our bed (the upstairs tv is in the guest room rather than our room).
If I go with an Android tablet, I can likely live without the ability to watch Amazon stuff in HD on it. It’s just that on those few occasions where we’d want to continue watching something as I described earlier, the pointless limit to SD resolution would annoy the shit out of me.
Rico
> Textured Soy Protein
07/16/2015 at 17:06 |
|
Just get a Apple Refurb iPad Air 1 for $340 http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/ho…
I really think it is the best option. I have had great, great luck with Apple certified refurbished over the years.
|
Textured Soy Protein
> Rico
07/16/2015 at 17:33 |
|
I’m open to Apple refurbs since they have the same warranty as new, but I want more than 16 GB. So I’d go iPad Air 1 32 GB for $389 or Air 2 64 GB for $509.
But I’m not 100% set because I can’t make up my damn mind on which option has the most appeal to me.
Galaxy Tab S 10.5 - best screen, nothing-special hardware, Android which I like but Samsung TouchWiz which I hate.
Nexus 9 and iPad Air 2 have powerful enough hardware to last through several years of software updates and will get those updates in a timely fashion.
But...
Nexus 9 is smaller than I’d prefer, and has stupid SD-only Amazon Instant Video (unless Amazon gets their shit together at some point in the future).
The iPad Air 2 has a screen size I’d be fine with even though it’s not as big as the Tab S 10.5, but I prefer Android over iOS.
|
Rico
> Textured Soy Protein
07/16/2015 at 19:09 |
|
I know you prefer it, I’ve read through all your posts but I saw that this is a replacement for an older iPad so I figured I would suggest a refurb.
Crazy to see how the state of Android tablets, fragmentation, bloat ware and lack of good build quality hasn’t changed much over the past 5 years. I still have an iPad 2 and with iOS9 the performance should improve.
|
Textured Soy Protein
> Rico
07/16/2015 at 19:19 |
|
I’m not holding my breath that iOS 9 will make my iPad 2 significantly more usable. It just doesn’t have enough RAM. Switching between a non-crazy amount of apps and browser tabs makes everything reload itself all the time.
I actually did a little digging and found the iPad Air 2 64 GB brand new for $500 straight up on eBay, vs. $509 + tax from Apple ($537 total) for a refurb.
But that’s $100 more than the Nexus 9 and $150 more than the Tab S 10.5, so I am still just as paralyzed in my decision making.
Really the only good thing I’ve ended up with from all these tablet posts was when I made this picture:
