Tag Archives: Amazon fire TV stick

Preorder New Amazon Fire Stick – Alexa now!

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new-amazon-fire-tv-stickAmazon just made available their latest Amazon Fire TV Stick! The new Amazon Fire TV stick is priced at $39.99 which is the same as their first generation but $10 less than the Amazon Fire TV Stick with the voice control.

 

They are offering a promotion right now where you will get $65 worth of subscription for sling, hulu, and Amazon. The promotion includes the following although it is not exactly clear how the credit is broken down. Sling should be $10 / month. Hulu has various models based on content and comemrcials.

  • 1 month sling
  • 2 months of Hulu
  • $10 of credit for Amazon

All will require credit card when you sign up and you will need to be a new customer. You can simply use another e-mail from the one you are using.

Amazon makes Fling available to developers

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amazonAmazon has recently launched a “Understanding the Amazon Fling Service” page to its developers. Amazon Fling enables users to ‘fling’ media, websites, from Android, Apple, and Fire OS devices to their TV. This is similar to what Google has for Chromecast for display and playback. Amazon has created an API which will interact with the developers app. The developer must create a controller (playback, stop, etc..) for the user to fling the content to its TV.

Fire TV and TV Stick has been relatively successful but we have heard from users that despite its great GUI (graphic user interface), it is limited. The only alternative from using the GUI built on Fire TV / Stick is to mirror your device. Mirroring your device doesn’t come without its issues as not all devices support mirroring. Also, mirroring is very bandwidth consuming as well as it putting a drain on your battery. Amazon’s Fling Service will resolve this. Instead of mirroring, you will be able to set the Fire TV / Stick device to call the content directly to the web via WiFi instead of placing the drain on your iOS, Android or Fire device.

amazonfling

 

Amazon makes Fling available to developers was first published at firetvblog.com.

Amazon announced Fire TV Stick for sale

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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.

 

What is Fire TV Stick

Here are other features listed on Amazon’s website.

  • Four times the storage capacity and double the memory of Chromecast.
  • Dual core processor and one gigabyte of memory
  • Huge selection of apps which is synonymous to Chromecast
  • Huge library of movies, tv shoes, music, and games through Amazon Prime
  • Ability to stream slideshows of personal photos and videos through your amazon cloud account
  • Instant streaming with its ASAP technology
  • Dedicated remote
  • Easy to use app with voice search through its Android app (iOS app not yet available)
  • Mirror function. Share what is on your tablet or phone to your TV.
  • Only requirement is that you have an HDTV and an available HDMI port on your TV.

Fire TV Stick Apps

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.