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Firestick

The Amazon Fire Stick and Kodi

The Amazon Firestick is part of the Amazon Fire family of streaming devices, which also includes includes the original Fire Box. It is a low profile and more affordable alternative for people in the market for a streaming device. It offers many of the same capabilities as other manufacturers in the same class like Roku and Chrome Cast.

But the stick also offers some distinct advantages over the competition. This article outlines the features and benefits of the streaming device. It also goes over how to jailbreak the device, install Kodi on it, and what that offers users.

Overview

Amazon rolled out its Fire TV brand in 2014 to grab its piece of the streaming device market and give Roku and Google a run for their money. Like its competitors, the Fire TV Stick gives those seeking to get away from expensive cable package the ability to access apps like:

  • Direct Now
  • Sling
  • Netflix
  • Hulu
  • Amazon Instant Video purchases
  • HBO Now
  • And 15,000 other apps

At a standard price of $39.99, Amazon's stick is hard to beat, especially its Alexa Voice Remote. Like with its other branded products, Amazon puts the stick on sale, up to $10 off.

Advantages

This device is highly flexible. Its integration with the suite of features offered by Prime is a definite highlight. In addition to streaming shows, the stick also displays photos stored in Amazon photos and takes advantage of Amazon Prime Music. For those who like games, light gaming is also possible thanks to Bluetooth integration.

What is Kodi?

One of the biggest gripes about Fire TV in general is that it does not have as many channels compared to devices like Roku. Enter Kodi.

Kodi is a software media center. It's actually been around since 2002 where it was first known as the Xbox Media Player. Today, Kodi provides access to open-source software on Amazon's stick and other devices like tablets, laptops, and phones. Get ready to jailbreak firestick.

What does Kodi Do?

Kodi can do what Amazon intends for its stick to do already but it isn't confined just to the Amazon app store. Kodi can stream and import:

  • TV shows
  • Trailers
  • Fan Art
  • Photos
  • Music
  • Live TV (using Media Portal and Other Services)

Jailbroken Firestick

In order to use Kodi, Amazon's streaming stick needs to be jailbroken. Jailbreaking simply means going through a process to install third party software. Most of the time this can be undone by simply restarting the device, which restores it to its original state. Kodi is completely legal to use because it does not come with content. The user has to fill the stick with their own content. A jailbreak firestick simply enhances all of the device's best features.

Installing Kodi can be tricky simply because Amazon has blocked many methods to do it. There are different methods, but an easy way of installing has been introduced recently:

  1. Go to the settings app in the stick's menu
  2. Find developer settings
  3. Activate ABD debugging and Unknown sources in the options
  4. Go to the Search function
  5. Type in 'Downloader'
  6. Select it from the List
  7. Click on the Get button and download it
  8. Install it
  9. Once in the app, enter http://kodi.tv/download
  10. Confirm that the URL should be opened
  11. Click Ok if a Javascript Warning comes up
  12. The Amazon Stick Runs on Android so select that as the system
  13. Select version ARMV7A (32Bit)
  14. Click Download then install after download
  15. Open Kodi
  16. Install appropriate add ons

Kodi Firestick

The Kodi Fire Stick has quite a few different add-ons for content. Genesis has a database of TV shows and movies that can be streamed for free. Open Subtitles is great for those who enjoy foreign films, and UKTV now shows content including sports from the United Kingdom and the United States.

It is recommended that the Kodi Fire Stick always be created and installed by the stick owner. Do not buy one on the internet. Pirated content is always a consideration so conduct due diligence before using Kodi add-ons.

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