XBMC for Android is here

After spending months in beta, the Android version of XBMC is now finally released. According to the XBMC Android Staff, the XBMC Android app should be fully functional on pretty much any Android device. It's packed with features that give a way to navigate your media library and set up online streaming.

Since XBMC doesn't provide support for hardware accelerated video decoding on most devices, the Android version has been customised to use an external video player so that full hardware accelerated video decoding is possible. Some of the most popular XBMC addons have been built directly into the Android release. While the app isn't available on the Google Play store just yet, you can get it from the official website here.

XBMC app for Android is now here

Back in December, beta 2 for XBMC 12 was released. It featured a bunch of fixes along with support for the Xbox 360 controller to navigate through the media centre.

According to the blog, "As you know, XBMC currently supports OSX, Linux, Windows, iOS, and the ARM-based Raspberry Pi. That’s a great list, but anyone paying attention could tell you that a massive, critical platform is still missing." This dilemma has now been remedied in the form of the release of the Android version.

There have also been fixes to the Audio, among other things. The number one reported issue with the first beta of the latest version of XBMC was the lack of sound when running on Windows. The issue has now been fixed. There are also other fixes, such as fixes to nodes and smart playlists, the volume range of Airtunes in Windows, a speedup of EPG data importing, solving a minor files issue, and others.

The developers had announced the Android app for XBMC back in July through a blog post. The Android version is said to have the entire feature-set of the desktop versions of XBMC. The blog said, “Running your favorite media-center software on small, cheap, embedded hardware is about to become a hassle-free reality. And as Android-based set-top-boxes are becoming more and more ubiquitous, it couldn’t be a better time.”

Primary development of the app is said to be done on a Pivos XIOS DS set-top box. The blog continues, “And that is no coincidence; you will notice that Pivos is now listed as an official sponsor. XBMC is stable and works great there, as well as on various tablets and phones. Though with Android, as many of you probably know, that is only the beginning of the story.” The developers stated that they had been working for Pivos for the last few months.