Andy Betts
Verified
Freelance tech journalist, former magazine editor, #afcb fan. Averaging around 10 tweets per year.
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Andy Betts
Jellyfin isn't just a free Plex clone: Here's how I use it with games, eBooks, and more
Jellyfin is best known as a free, open-source Plex alternative. I've used it for some time to watch my library of movies and TV shows, but it's becoming increasingly useful for other types of content too. I now use it for gaming, eBooks, and audiobooks. I turned Jellyfin into a games library with JellyEmu Jellyfin's plugin support is one of the app's biggest strengths. Plugins add features missing from the stock app and let you add functionality you didn't expect.
My Google Pixel's photos look different after I take them, so I switched to a camera app that doesn't edit my photos
Google's Pixel phones have always been renowned for their excellent cameras. But what frustrates me is that what you see in the viewfinder doesn't always match what you get after you press the shutter button. Although the Pixel devices have excellent hardware, Google's computational photography and, increasingly, AI are at the heart of the images they produce.
My Google Pixel's photos look different after I take them, so I switched to a camera app that doesn't edit my photos
Google's Pixel phones have always been renowned for their excellent cameras. But what frustrates me is that what you see in the viewfinder doesn't always match what you get after you press the shutter button. Although the Pixel devices have excellent hardware, Google's computational photography and, increasingly, AI are at the heart of the images they produce.
I tested Plex and Jellyfin's tagging systems back-to-back, and neither one won
If you use either Plex or Jellyfin, you'll know that managing your library can take up more time than you originally expected. It's an important part of the process, though. Both apps pull in the standard metadata for your content, but it's mostly factual information and doesn't necessarily reflect how you're going to use your library. I'm a big user of custom tags in both apps, rather than merely relying on standard genres, actors, directors, and so on.
I finally de-Googled my life, but I still use Waze in Android Auto for 4 important reasons
I've spent a lot of time replacing Google apps and services with alternatives, and have moved on from Google Maps, Chrome, Photos, and even Search. But the one Google app that I keep coming back to is Waze. I keep it installed on my phone and use it in Android Auto, and there are four specific reasons why. Waze's real-time traffic information is hard to beat Waze's biggest strength is the sheer amount of real-time information it has and can provide about what's happening on the road.
I only use my phone in landscape mode, and this Android launcher respects my decision
A while back, I repurposed an old Motorola phone as a kind of mini-tablet. I use it as a bedside display, a media center, and for gaming with a controller. I keep the display locked in landscape mode, since that's how I use it, but there's one problem. It doesn't let me rotate the home screen. To fix the problem, I installed the free and open-source Discreet Launcher. Why I run my phone in landscape mode Although auto-rotate is a useful feature for many people, I keep it locked off on all my devices.
Your old Fire TV Stick is secretly a smart speaker—here's how to turn it into one without connecting to a TV
Published Sep 12, 2026, 8:43 PM EDT Andy is a senior writer and former Mac editor at HTG. He has over 20 years experience as a consumer tech journalist, and has covered everything from the old Palm Pilots to the original iPhone and Android devices, to the latest gadgets. He has written and edited for UK-based print publications like PDA Essentials and Android Magazine, and online at sites including MUO, Android Tips and Hacks, broadband.co.uk, and Envato.
How I revived my old Android phone with an open-source OS
Got an old Android phone sitting unused in a drawer? By installing an open-source ROM, you can bring it bang up to date and give it a whole new lease of life. That's what I did with my old Motorola phone. Here's how it went. Why I chose an open-source OS Like many, I keep an old phone on hand as an emergency backup. Mine is the Moto G7 Plus. It was a pretty solid mid-ranger back in the day, but it quickly fell foul of Motorola's patchy update policy.
This is the only podcast app that makes any sense in Android Auto
I always find that Android Auto is at its best when you keep it as stripped back as possible. It's great for navigation and music, but throw a podcast app into the mix, and it can quickly start to complicate things again. You don't want to be browsing through hundreds of episodes or fiddling with complicated menus while driving. Pocket Casts is the podcast app that gets the balance right.
Your Android Auto launcher is a mess, but these 4 tweaks fix it
Android Auto can be frustrating if you don't want it to do anything more than the basics. It quickly fills up with apps, it bombards you with notifications, and generally feels bloated and cluttered. All I need is for it to tell me where to go and play some music until I get there. And by changing a few key settings, that's exactly what it does.
These 3 third-party Plex add-ons unlock features that Plex Pass won't give you
Plex is probably the easiest way to get started with building your own media server, but even if you choose to upgrade to Plex Pass, it still doesn't give you everything you might want. Fortunately, there are some third-party apps that can fill in the gaps. I keep my setup fairly lean and built around three main add-ons for detailed stats, different ways to stream and download, and adding a request service.
I run Plex and Jellyfin side by side to dodge the paywall—here's exactly why
If you're looking to set up a media server for your movie and TV library, Plex and Jellyfin are the two obvious choices, but I avoided choosing at all by running both together. It means I get a very powerful media server setup, and it doesn't cost me anything. Both apps use the same library When I first wanted to move away from using local files for my media library and use my own media server instead, I started with Plex like most people.
These 4 overlooked Plex companion apps do what the official app refuses to
Plex is the ideal starting point for anyone who wants to build their own media server with minimal setup. But it isn't perfect. Some features you might want are missing, while others are locked behind a paywall. I use a few companion apps to add these features and upgrade my Plex experience in the process. Tautulli Tautulli is one of the most popular companion apps among Plex enthusiasts, but its nerdiness means it isn't quite as well known beyond that.
5 reasons I'm switching to Samsung after using Google Pixel for 8 years
Google has been my favorite Android manufacturer for a long time. I've used Pixel phones for nearly a decade, and before that, I used Nexus phones and tablets. But that run is coming to an end. Next time I upgrade, I'll be switching over to the Samsung Galaxy side. Pixel doesn't feel like the phone I originally loved Credit: Cory Gunther / How-To Geek I always admired Google's approach to making Android phones.
My favorite Fire TV app has nothing to do with streaming
Fire TV is built around streaming services, but my favorite app does something more. NOVA Video Player lets me build a polished, Netflix-style library from my own local files, without needing to run a Plex or Jellyfin server. It makes a Fire TV device so much more powerful. NOVA makes your local videos look like a streaming service To describe NOVA Video Player as just another local video app would be to massively downplay its qualities. This isn't a mere VLC alternative.
I stopped planning trips on my phone and started using Google Maps on desktop—it’s way faster
Google Maps feels like an app that's perfectly suited to a phone, but with its growing number of features, it's becoming increasingly cluttered. I recently switched to using my laptop whenever I wanted to plot a route in Google Maps. It turns out it's so much better. Google Maps is surprisingly fiddly on a small screen Google Maps has developed a lot in recent years. It's moved away from being a simple navigation app and become more of a tool for discovering what's around you.
The AI Detection False Economy: Fueling FOW (Fear of Writing)
For the last 10 years, AI has helped with everything I do, content included. Last week I decided to take a break from it. No assistant in the corner, no prompts; nothing polished after the fact. One article, the old-fashioned way, all me. Once I finished, I did the obvious thing and turned back to AI – running it through several of the best-known AI detectors. The results were all over the place: • A couple would not tell me the result unless I paid first. Same article. Same words.
5 things I never back up to the cloud
Backing up your files to the cloud is super convenient since you can access them anywhere and on any device. However, there is a chance that your cloud storage could become compromised. If that ever happens, you'll be glad not to have the things on this list stored in it. Is it safe to store your files in the cloud?
I blocked 16 Android apps from accessing the internet with one free firewall tool
Many Android apps need internet access. Lots don't, but connect anyway. By installing a firewall app on my Pixel, I was able to lock down more than a dozen apps. It brings a big privacy boost as well as data and battery savings. And it's surprisingly simple to set up. NetGuard gives me a feature Android should already have In the early days of Android, internet access was a permission you had to grant to every app. But now every app has internet access whether it needs it or not.
I ditched Google Maps for my privacy and got better navigation as a bonus
For anyone who wants to de-Google their phone, or at least limit how much data Google can collect on them, Google Maps is often the hardest app to replace. It's so slick and powerful that it's difficult for its rivals to match it. But I took the plunge with Magic Earth, a privacy-centric navigation app, and haven't looked back. I wanted a navigation app that wasn’t part of Google’s ecosystem As good as Google Maps is, it really hoovers up a lot of data.
I love my Kindle, but I still don't buy eBooks from Amazon
I can't say I'm a big fan of Amazon, but it's hard to deny that Kindle eReaders are pretty great. Despite my feelings about the company, I have a Kindle Paperwhite. However, I don't buy any ebooks from Amazon—that's the line I draw. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to do. Before I caved in and bought a Kindle Paperwhite, I tried a Kobo for a while. My goal was to have a completely Amazon-free reading experience. It was mostly fine, but ultimately, I wasn't that happy with it.
My phone's battery drained when I used Android Auto—these 6 changes fixed it
Powering Android Auto is one of the most demanding things your phone does. Sometimes you can even keep your phone plugged in and still find that the battery level drops during a long drive. However, with these changes to your setup, you can minimize battery drain and make sure you've still got a decent amount of power left when you reach your destination.
Got an old Chromecast sitting in a drawer unused? It doesn't matter if you no longer need it for streaming, there are plenty of other ways to make use of it. So connect it to your TV, update the software, and try one of these ideas to repurpose your old Chromecast. One of the simplest uses of an old Chromecast is to turn your TV into a digital photo frame. You wouldn't necessarily want to use it all the time, but it's perfect for parties and family get-togethers.
New Android phones aren't worth buying anymore
Android is in a strange place right now. New phones have never been better, yet it's harder than ever to justify buying the latest one. You're better off keeping your current device until it's no longer up to the job. And when you do need to replace it, buy an older model instead. New phones have never been less exciting Credit: Cory Gunther / How-To Geek Credit: Goran Damnjanovic / How-To Geek Credit: Cianna Garrison/ How-To Geek Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek Nothing Phone 4a Pro in silver.
Jellyfin is better on paper, but Plex still wins where it actually matters
In a straight comparison between Jellyfin and Plex, there's one clear winner. Jellyfin is open source, totally free with no premium tier, has no account requirement, and has almost everything Plex users need, along with greater customization. For the average person, the day-to-day experience is what really matters, putting Plex above Jellyfin. It's more accessible to the average user Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek Plex and Jellyfin both have decent setup wizards.
6 things to test before throwing away your "broken" Fire TV Stick
If your Fire TV Stick keeps rebooting, freezing, or buffering and feels like it's on its way out, it might not actually be broken. Different symptoms often have different causes, so the fix for a device that's buffering won't be the same as one that's stuck in a reboot loop. So before you throw it away and buy a replacement, check whether you can get it working properly again.
5 battery-saving Pixel settings most people overlook
Want to extend the time between charges on your Pixel, or just get through a day out without worrying about having to top up? You don't have to disable features on your phone to do it. Pixel devices have some easily ignorable settings you can tweak that will help to save your battery. Restrict your most battery-hungry apps Given the chance, apps will burn through your battery life, especially those that have free rein to run in the background. You can restrict them quite easily.
7 problems I wish I knew about before setting up my first Jellyfin server
After using Jellyfin for a while, I've finally got it running how I want. But the process wasn't without a few issues, and the software comes with a steeper learning curve than Plex. Here are some of the things I wish I knew before I started using Jellyfin. It's better with a tidy library A common complaint from Plex-to-Jellyfin switchers is that Jellyfin isn't as good at handling metadata.
Fire TV's remote has secret shortcuts Amazon never explains—here are 8 of them
Fire TV remotes are pretty good. They're stripped back and easy to use, and they put all the most common features right at your fingertips. But the lack of extra buttons makes the remote look quite limited. In fact, a series of long presses and button combos unlocks a host of shortcuts that many people never discover. Here are the best of them.
This open-source Lightroom alternative processes RAW files locally and never asks for a subscription
Lightroom is still the go-to editor for many people who shoot RAW photos. But it comes with an expensive subscription and the desktop version feels increasingly neglected in favor of its cloud-based companion. If you’d rather keep your files on your own computer instead of syncing everything online, darktable is one of the best free alternatives. Lightroom Classic is still the best RAW editing and management program.
As good as Google Maps is, I've long found it cluttered and bloated, offering features that I never use. And since I'm also becoming increasingly aware of how much data Google has on me, I decided to find an alternative. After testing out six of the best, with hundreds of millions of downloads between them, there's one that I really recommend. TomTom TomTom is a real blast from the past.
Stop buying hard drives for Plex: How I reclaimed 7TB for free
I have a lot of storage for my Plex server—over 60TB, actually. However, even I sometimes run into space issues and have to find ways to free up hard drive storage without deleting things. That’s where Tdarr comes in, and here’s how I used it to free up over 7TB of space on my server.
No, the Windows Phone wasn't "ahead of its time"
Every failed gadget eventually gets rebranded as being "ahead of its time," and Windows Phone is no exception. Its bold design and fluid performance helped it to stand out at the time, but in truth, it wasn't the big leap forward that many try to claim. It was fresh and different, but not better A lot of how Windows Phone is thought of today is driven by nostalgia. When it first launched in 2010, it was fresh and new.
5 overlooked Jellyfin features I wish someone had told me about sooner
When I first switched from Plex to Jellyfin, I was immediately taken with how easy it was to set up and how reliable it seemed in use. And yet it took a while before I discovered all of Jellyfin's capabilities. What seems like a fairly stripped-back app actually hides many powerful features that can enhance your user experience. Hardware acceleration If you're coming from Plex, you'll probably know that hardware acceleration for transcoding is locked behind the Plex Pass paywall.
Android Auto's hidden developer mode unlocks these 4 features nobody talks about
Android Auto keeps its settings simple, for good reason. The app is based around the things you need every day, with minimal distractions. But if you unlock the developer mode in Android Auto, you can access a few more features. Most are designed for testing and debugging, but some are actually quite useful for everyone. The developer settings in Android Auto are hidden, so you need to activate them before you can use them.
These 5 third-party Jellyfin clients make remote streaming as easy as Plex
The official Jellyfin client is reliable enough, and it runs on virtually all of your devices. But it's pretty basic and not all that much fun to use. If you're a recent convert to Jellyfin but want it to be a little more Plex-like, using a third-party client will significantly improve your experience. Moonfin If you're new to Jellyfin clients, Moonfin is the best place to start and might even end up being all you need. It runs on pretty much anything.
Why your Amazon Fire TV Stick keeps buffering—and 5 fixes that actually work
Few things can ruin a Stranger Things binge quicker than buffering. It happens from time to time on a Fire TV Stick. It's often a temporary glitch, but if it keeps happening, you'll want to try out these steps to fix it. Why your Fire TV Stick is buffering Many things can cause buffering on your Fire TV Stick, and it can be difficult to narrow down. Often, it's a Wi-Fi issue.
It's time to stop buying new Kindles
In my view, the Kindle is both the best and most frustrating product Amazon has made. And that's why I no longer recommend new ones. If you already own one, there's a good chance that it's got years more life in it. And if you don't, buying a new Kindle is often the least best option. The hardware barely changes from one year to the next Credit: Justin Duino / How-To Geek Kindles age better than pretty much any other major tech gadget you can buy.
5 reasons I run Google Maps and Waze together while driving with Android Auto
Google Maps and Waze are two of the most popular navigation apps for Android Auto. But I've never been convinced that you need to choose between one or the other. While a lot of the core functionality of the two apps overlaps, many of their strengths don't. By using them both, I get the best of both worlds.
Fire TV Sticks slow down for one stupid reason, and it takes 30 seconds to fix
As good as Amazon's Fire TV Sticks are, pretty much every user knows that they become a lot more sluggish over time. It isn't because the hardware has suddenly become obsolete. Although they were never powerhouses in terms of performance, they remain capable for many years. The most likely culprit is that the storage is running low, and it's an easy fix.
Your Android keyboard is tracking you—this open-source app stops it
On most Android phones, the stock keyboard has internet access and sends data to its remote servers to power features like predictions, voice typing, and personalization. It's not always clear what data they're uploading, how much, or what it's being used for. And while they aren't keyloggers, exactly, it is a privacy concern. Switching to an alternative often brings about a series of trade-offs that leave you coming back to the original.
The first Jellyfin setting I enable gives me a feature that Plex puts behind a paywall
Transcoding is an unavoidable part of both the Plex and Jellyfin experiences. When it's required, converting your videos in real time into a format that your client devices can handle is slow and resource-heavy and is the main cause of buffering and stuttering. But you can speed it up significantly by enabling hardware acceleration on both platforms. The big difference is that on Plex, you have to pay for it. On Jellyfin, it's free.
Stop dreading the Plex-to-Jellyfin switch, this plugin does the heavy lifting
Jellyfin has been growing in popularity for a while, as many users look for a free and open-source alternative to Plex. And with the recent Plex price hikes, the reason to switch has just gotten even greater. Yet while you can set up your media library in Jellyfin in no time at all, potential switchers often get discouraged by the thought of losing years of tweaks and customizations. But that doesn't have to be true. One plugin called Plexyfin helps make the move to Jellyfin easier.
Don't throw away your old Fire TV Stick, it's more valuable than ever before
An unexpected side effect of Amazon switching to its newer Vega OS for its streaming devices was that it made the older Fire Sticks much more useful. The devices built on the Android-powered Fire OS continue to offer the power, flexibility, and customization that made them popular in the first place and that are largely absent from the newer models. Instead of throwing your old device in a drawer, now might be the best time to keep it around. The problem with Vega Amazon Fire TV Stick HD (2026).
Stop using wireless Android Auto on long drives until you disable these 6 battery killers
Using Android Auto wirelessly is very convenient and cuts down on cable clutter, but it isn't perfect. The biggest issue is how heavy it can be on the battery. Obviously, it will never be able to match a wired connection that charges your phone as you go, but by tweaking a few settings, you can really reduce the battery drain. Use offline maps The way to make your battery last longer on Android Auto is to disable some of the features that you don't use or have good alternatives for.
The 6 settings I change on every Android phone for better Jellyfin streaming
Jellyfin works pretty well on Android with all the default settings in place. But there are still a few tweaks I make in both the Jellyfin client and Android itself to tailor the service to exactly how I want to use it. From enabling wider codec support to improving offline use, to enabling background play, these tips can improve your Jellyfin experience too. Switch the player type By default, the Android Jellyfin client uses the built-in web player for video playback. It's fine.
Forget Plex, YouTube Music lets you stream your music collection without a home server
Plex is great, but setting up and maintaining a home server is more effort than many people want. If you only want to use it for music and audiobooks, you don't need to go to that trouble. You might already have a simpler alternative that you're ignoring. It's YouTube Music.
I install this open-source app store on every Android device (even my TVs)
One of the first apps I install on a new Android device isn't from the Play Store; it's an alternative to the Play Store. F-Droid is an open-source app store packed with useful apps that often have no ads, tracking, or subscriptions. It's perfect as a companion to the Play Store, and what's more, it works on just about any Android device. Why F-Droid has become essential for me F-Droid is the go-to app store for de-Googled phones or phones running a custom ROM.
I replaced my Pixel phone's camera app with this open-source alternative
Pixel phones are known for their cameras, but the stock camera app isn’t perfect. The image processing is quite heavy, and there’s little manual control if you want to experiment. I recently started using Open Camera, a free open-source alternative, and I'm now getting even more from my Pixel's camera. The Pixel camera app is great for point-and-shoot photography and produces reliably impressive results. But it's very limited if you want more control.
This alternative Jellyfin app gave me a Plex-like experience without any fuss
I've been using Plex for years but am not overly happy with the direction it's going. As much as I like Jellyfin as an alternative, I'm not ready to adopt it permanently. Or at least, I wasn't. I've recently started using an app called Wholphin that combines the best of Jellyfin with the polish of Plex, and it might be the app that finally makes me switch. What is Wholphin?
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with Andy
Contact Andy, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack