I guess I am a troglodyte, but I don’t get all the angst with Amazon fire stuff and Launcher Manager. I have a fire tv cube gen 2. iptv using Tivimate app; Launcher Manger 1.1.6; Wolf Launcher: Launch on boot; and Kodi 20. all Troypoint blessed.
I go:
Alexa turn on TV and apps with Amazon appear.
I click the big W–Wolf Launcher appears
I click Tivi Mate app and my last channel viewed on iptv appears; or I click the KODI app.
It takes all of 3 seconds!!
I must admit I never have played with the remote buttons and never will–but it would still be 2 clicks.
Nobody said you couldn’t do all the things you mention above. They are still a perfectly legit way to stream. For now. The Amazon frustration is more about them telling us what we can and can’t do with their cheap devices. I, for one, just am not going to support that. As long as there are devices that I can put my own launcher and customize it the way I want, I will not support the ones that don’t allow that. I don’t have a vendetta against Amazon exactly, I have Prime, Amazon Music, etc, I just refuse to support their devices unless they allow customization and back off from flexing their muscles to control us.
I used to get Amazon devices for my family and load them up for them, many times following Troypoint guides. I personally use Nvidia Shields while I stuck them with cheap but functional Amazon, but free gifts unfortunately that they are I seem to never actually own. I am now switching them to true Android devices. I am sick of it. I used to be able to remote access the devices for maintenance, Amazon did away with that, then the launchers, the forced updates with absolutely nothing that can be done about it with no telling what they are going to do next in the future.
I am slowly moving family members off of 6 Amazon streaming devices and two Amazon tablets to proper Android no more fire OS. My mother likes Amazon she’s on my prime and she uses their services so I’m currently in the process of loading some Amazon on a used Shield I picked up for her. I just got a mi box s for my uncle to replace his 4K stick. It is so so very much nicer not working with the fire OS.
I curios to know this as I thought the old launcher manager was rendered useless in a past update. Obviously, if you blocked updates when that was also “do-able” you could still use it.
Hi Troy–you know, I did use an app you recommended to block Amazon auto updates in the past. Was it Debloat Toolbox? My Launcher Manager and Wolf Launcher have been working fine so I usually don’t update unless there is a reason.
my Launch on Boot is 1.1.3
my Launcher Manager is 1.1.6
my Wolf Launcher is 0.1.9
That sounds exactly what you must have done. I did the same thing on my Fire HD 10 tablet. I bought it on a Black Friday deal a couple of years ago and even then, Amazon had already come out with a block. I got lucky and mine could still be altered using the Fire Toolbox. To this very day I have never updated that tablet and it still works with the Fire Toobox alterations. I figure eventually it will not for whatever reason.
I won’t get another Amazon product and when my present Fire HD tablet dies. That will be the last Amazon product I have in my arsenal of gadgets and toys.
OK. I want to be crystal clear and not post something not accurate. I went into my system and the fire tv cube gen 2 is running firetvOS 7.6.2.4–this is the new one and must have been updated. I then checked the Launcher Manager 1.1.6 for “other settings” and the auto-update appears as unblocked. As a matter of fact you can’t block it from inside the app.
When I say “Alexa turn on TV” it goes to the first Amazon page but I have my favorite apps in the upper row and it is an easy 1 click to the W for wolf launcher. No other involvement with Amazon happens since I have all the Amazon apps hidden by the Wolf Launcher screen.
For me, it is just “Alexa” and then 2 clicks to open the iptv or Kodi or Cinema or Smart Tube, etc. I think since I am using Alexa it must automatically open the Amazon Home page.
We have many posts on this. I also post in my mega guide that amazon updates can only be blocked on older versions.
Please review this for all firestick issues and guides, if the following hasn’t worked feel free to ask.
This should resolve most to all issues.
Also it seems amazon may have just blocked the newset way for updates. Also, there is no fuss with amazon unless you want to fully customize it if you want to do that than you shouldnt use a stick.
For somebody who uses streaming just one app one VPN and maybe a couple extra apps clean up apps utility apps the fire stick is fine. When start loading up 10 15 20 50 apps and yeah the fire stick doesn’t have enough memory and you need to go to a different unit.
Unfortunately, most of the posters on this thread, (like me), have had a past history of using Amazon streaming devices and that colors our experiences. We were attracted to the firestick because of the cheap price, small size and what seemed like a great way to stream our entertainment. Right away you could tell your usage, even of a jailbroken firestick, would be severely restricted by limited RAM, internal memory, proprietary operating system and homescreen bloatware you can not get rid of. On top of that, you could only add maybe 2 or 3 open source apps, including a vpn and kodi before your firestick would crash. Even 6 years ago, I found Android TV and stock android boxes to have much more utility and better performance than the firestick. Today, it is even better with a great selection of android streaming devices of ever better quality.
