Christmas gift is here! Amazon sent me a notice saying that the fireTV stick was ready for shipment which is way ahead of schedule! This is a nice Christmas present that wasn’t supposed to be. I got an email on Dec. 19th with the subject, “Welcome to Fire TV Stick.” I placed this order on Nov. 2nd and my initial delivery date was supposed to be mid-Jan so this is a very nice surprise! Mr. UPS dropped off the Amazon fire TV stick just now and I can’t wait to do the first unboxing.
Users are not happy with Amazon as the voice recognition software prefers its own content and only supports Vevo content (verified by reviews on its own website). It doesn’t appear to work with Hulu or Netflix. One of the major feature of Fire TV is the ability to use voice search. However, when you search for a video, only content to purchase will be displayed even though it may be free on other apps such as Hulu or Netflix.
Amazon finally gave full details to its Fire TV Stick to go head on with Google’s extremely popular Chromecast. A bit late to the game but Amazon has revealed why it was worth the wait. The current backorder signifies its popularity which will complement its Prime subscription. If you order the Amazon Fire TV stick today, you will not receive it in time for Christmas but in mid-Jan. The date will likely slip as you approach the holidays which is a huge dissapointment. The price is $39 which is comparable to Chromecast’s $35. Amazon Fire TV stick includes a remote which is a nice add on.
Here are other features listed on Amazon’s website.
Another problem with Chromecast is it’s inability to let you bypass hotel or college dorm captive portal Internet access. Apparently, Amazon has a solution to this and it is in the pipeline.
You can play simple games with your remote but not sure how much use this will have.
The Android app which will let you voice search. iOS / Apple app coming soon.
Stream directly from your Amazon music library of stream Prime music which has a wide variety of music available on demand. You also have the option to play music from other apps such as vevo, Pandora, iheartradio, and others.
A lot of people will compare the Amazon fireTV with the Chromecast. One major sticking point with Chromecast is that it didn’t have a specific app associated with Amazon instant or prime videos. However, there is a workaround with this which you can find here. It doesn’t work as smooth and some users have experience where it doesn’t work at all. If you want to only watch Amazon Prime videos along with your Prime membership, the fireTV is the way to go. At $99, it is not a bad price to pay. However, $99 is much higher than Chromecast’s cost at $35. If you find yourself watching Netflix more than anything else, there will be no need to get the Amazon fireTV. Amazon fireTV does have more features as a remote, voice control, and ability to play games but not everyone will find this as attractive.
The war is on and consumers should come out the winner here. See below on further details between fireTV and Chromecast comparisons along with Roku and Apple TV.
Amazon finally announced its much anticipated media console the Amazon TV! It is immediately available for $99 which is higher than other competitors. There was speculation that it would be called the FireTube as we did but it is officially called the amazon fireTV.
As of now, the fireTV has the same offering as other streaming devices such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, WasthESPN, Pandora, Showtime, and many others. The main advantage it has over other competitors is the availability of videos that comes with Amazon Prime membership.
Another neat feature is its voice search. Check it out here in action. They also boast of one of the more powerful streaming devices which is a plus considering you can use this to play games. it has a powerful quad core processor, dual-band, dual-antenna, dedicated GPU for graphics and 2GB of memory. It also has an ‘ASAP’ system where it predicts what content you may be interested in.
Will you buy it?
Bostom.com reported that Amazon.com sent out an invitation only event. The even will be held on January 30th from 5-7:30pm. There will be food, drinks, and you will get to meet Amazon’s creative leaders. The event is hosted by the Kindle New Initiative team. Could this be the announcement of Firetube?
