This may make me sound very dumb, but I just discovered something that has changed my life for the better, so I thought I would pass it on for anyone else who might benefit from it as I have.

I am one of the few people who don’t use a cell phone. I do use Android boxes to stream to my TV. I also use apps. Unfortunately, most apps are designed for phones, which means they are also designed for touch screens, which Android boxes don’t have.

Some apps just don’t work well without a touch screen. You can navigate the visible screen area and do some other things, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to scroll down a long list that goes off-screen. I have not been able to find any way to do this with mouse or keyboard functions. The cursor just stops at the screen edge and that is that.

Until now. I just discovered that the wheel function on a wheel mouse works perfectly for this! Just plug a wheel mouse into a USB port of the Android device, and suddenly you can scroll down anything that extends beyond the screen area. Such a simple thing, but it has stymied me ever since I discovered Android boxes. 

The question now is if there is an app that can emulate the wheel function. There ought to be, but I haven’t been able to find one. Maybe I will try to write one, though it has been a long time since I did anything like this. It shouldn’t be very complicated, though. Anyway, I thought I would mention this for what it is worth.