Version 1.1.3 of my Downloader app for the Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, and upcoming Fire TV Edition televisions has just gone live in the Amazon appstore. The main new features are a fullscreen mode for the built-in web browser, zooming capabilities in the browser, and full support for the Fire TV Game Controller.
In the browser menu, you’ll now find a new option to enable fullscreen mode. This has been the most requested feature lately. When turned on, the browser window takes up 100% of the screen with nothing else visible. I debated leaving the browser controls visible on top, for easier URL entry while in fullscreen, but decided it would be best to just use the entire screen for browsing.
I also included a shortcut to easily get in and out of fullscreen mode. You’ll notice it says “Press ☰ button again” next to the fullscreen option. Basically, pressing the menu button on the remote brings up the browser menu, and pressing the menu button again toggles fullscreen mode. So, essentially, a double menu press will always take you in and out of fullscreen mode. You can also load favorites without exiting fullscreen mode, since the browser menu is always accessible.
This update also includes new zooming capabilities in the browser, as well as full support for the Fire TV Game Controller. To zoom in and out, use the fast-forward and rewind buttons on the remote. Those buttons used to scroll the page up and down, so now the only way to scroll is to move the cursor to the edge of the page, which I think is fine since that was always the better way of scrolling anyway. To zoom with the game controller, use the left (L1) and right (R1) shoulder bump buttons. Zooming especially helps with clicking small links on websites.
Prior to this update, the game controller didn’t fully work in the web browser. That has now been corrected. You can move the cursor around using the game controller’s left joystick, which is a much nicer experience than the directional buttons on the remote. You can click links with the A button and move back a page with either the B button or the BACK button. You can move forward by clicking in the right joystick.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the app by donating within the app and by becoming a patron through Patreon. The app is about to cross 3 million users and it’s all thanks to you guys. It’s wonderful that I can provide the app 100% for free without any annoying ads, yet still continuously pay development costs for new features to be added. That’s all thanks to the few generous people who have chipped in a few bucks.
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AFTVnews
Elias your the man!!
Great work sir.
Downloader just keeps getting Better and Better!!!
This app is simply glorious, thanks a bunch…
cant seem to install. get “app not installed” error from apk
Thank you for taking my suggestion, glad to see full screen is now part of the app. I have used this to update Kodi on a few FTVs and loved it, now I will love browsing the web with it also.
Has anyone else received a message on their Fire TV to login, like this http://bit.ly/2t67413, after updating to v1.1.3 of Downloader?
One person on Twitter said this happened and another left a review for the app saying it happened. I’m not sure what’s going on. My guess is Amazon’s DRM is acting up. I just submitted v1.1.3 again, but this time told Amazon to not add their DRM. Might be a few days before the DRM-free version goes live. It’ll appear as the same 1.1.3 version, so I’ll update this comment when it goes live.
Update: The non-DRM version is no up in the Amazon Appstore.
Elias, since I prefer higher resolution icons that look similar in quality to Fire TV menu tiles, I have not used the Downloader app as I assume it imports the lower resolution icon from the native apk. The methods you outlined some time ago that allow one to repack the desired apk with a user defined high resolution icon still work well for me. A 1280×720 icon looks really good in the Recents menu. Not sure if you can make this a feature or not. Just a suggestion.
Not sure if this is supported but it would be nice if the app can host a simple web page on the local network so anyone within the same subnet can hit that website (say like: http://192.168.1.10) from a browser and type in a web page address and hit go – this should make the downloader go to that page. This will make the need to type with the remote unnecessary.
You can use the official Amazon remote app for iOS or Android to paste text into the ftv input system.
Or I can attach a keyboard etc. but it would be a lot simpler if I didn’t need to install yet another app on all of the phones of everyone in the household.
I just wanted to let you know that when i couldn’t sign in to hotel wifi as the built in fire stick captive portal browser didn’t let me select the required fields, your updated Downoader app browser worked perfectly! You might want to point out this tip. Keep up the great work!
I dont get it. I seem to have problems with Amazon’s updates.
Mrmc doesnt show an update. Still on 3.0.4 . Downloader also doesnt show an update.
Hello i want to know why when i use the app DOWNLOADER using this link http://bit.ly/kodi173 in my first amazon fire STICK 1st generation take around of 20 minutes to download and with my new amazon fire stick 2nd generatiom just take a seconds to download the kodi ?
Hi I am not able to find the app in the amazon app store. I am from India