Technology

40243 readers

270 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

alyaza@beehaw.org

TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org

gyrfalcon@beehaw.org

rs5th@beehaw.org

coldredlight@beehaw.org

SemioticStandard@beehaw.org

TheRtRevKaiser@kbin.social

remington@beehaw.org

221

Amazon is now automatically playing fullscreen video ads on Fire TV (9to5google.com)

submitted 2 years ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/technology@beehaw.org

92 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago (6 children)

This here is the solution for what you want: https://www.xda-developers.com/disable-system-app-bloatware-android/

You can disable whatever app you want until the system doesn't work any more. Just install an alternative for what you want to disable (e.g. the launcher) and then disable the Amazon version.

[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

until the system doesn’t work anymore

yeah that’s my worry… accidentally bricking the thing. Can you rollback changes if that happens?

edit:

so be sure you don't disable anything absolutely critical (use your best judgment)

apparently not

I keep imagining a scenario where it cannot find something and just spins forever looking for it, or disable something that prevents startup entirely, etc.

edit: wait… you can install a new launcher on a fire tv? I need to look into that.

[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

As long as it still boots, you can undo the change with a simple adb pm enable [packagename].

I wouldn't recomment disableing system critical things like systemui. You can google each package together with "Can I disable X" and you should get decent infos.

Regarding the launcher:

I don't have a Fire TV but I had a Fire Tablet. So if these two work the same, you can install another launcher without issues. But Amazon removed the setting for default launcher, so it will always pick the stock launcher when you press the home button.

To override that, there are two options.

Install the Automate app by Llamalab and make a small flow that detects when the stock launcher is the currently active app and then automatically launches the new launcher. This option is completely safe.
Disable the stock launcher. If Android doesn't find it's set default launcher, it will instead open the first launcher it finds. Worked good on the Fire Tablet, but I can't verify that this doesn't cause issues on a Fire TV. So this might be a bit risky.

[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 1 points 2 years ago

Thank you for the detailed info and the tips, it’s much appreciated! With that to lead me in the right direction I was also able to find a possible solution for the home button without a workaround using an updated app, though it seems ymmv depending on whether or not Amazon can automatically reset it somehow. I have pretty much everything blocked so the home screen is usually empty except for my top row apps, so the button fix may work for me, but those workarounds may still be needed. Thanks again!

load more comments (3 replies)