The fifth and last Beta build for Kodi v18 is yours to download as its developers head towards the final release. The next step will include release candidates which would focus on solving possible usability problems and bugs.
For those brave enough to try it out as a daily driver Kodi v18 proved to be quite solid. Naturally, you should remember the fact that it is not a final release and with any upgrade there could be a small glitch happening as its designers are still working on it.
Currently Included
Because a complete changelog is almost impossible to write, we will only cover the basics. The most notable changes coming with Beta 5 include:
- Improvements to the Android video playback
- Repository connection issues on Windows that affected certain CPU types are fixed
- Improvements to the OSX resolution switching
- If the backend PVR supports it, Kodi will support Radio Data RDS
- The updated Chorus2 webinterface
- General code improvements and cleanup.
Stability and usability are keys
The whole stability in general has been improved quite a lot. You will still receive glitches or occasional crashes, but their times have been reduced through the introduction of a more structured design and standard.
The old code wasn’t bad as a whole, however, in time, there were new insights gained and introducing new code standards seemed like a good idea. Untangling all components and parts and make them behave better next to each other represented one of the biggest efforts undergone by the team so far.
Available skins
Because Kodi suffered changes in how it works, the skins need to be upgraded for each new release. Right now, we have the following ones updated by their developers: Aeon Nox 5, Adnoic, Andromeda, Xperience 1080, Rapier and more.
Tim M. Hill helped bring Digital-Overload from a weekly newsletter to a full-fledged news site by creating a new website and branding. He continues to assist in keeping the site responsive and well organized for the readers. As a writer to Digital-Overload, Tim mainly covers mobile news and gadgets.
