The new Fire TV’s 4K resolution is one of its most exciting features, but I think its support for Amazon’s cloud-based voice service, Alexa, is equally as important. As I said in my review of the Echo, anyone who buys an Echo will want to buy more for other rooms of their home. Put a Fire TV in your home theater, and that’s one room you won’t need to add an Echo to.
Going back to the 4K resolution, there’s little point in delivering that feature if there’s no content to go with it. To that end, Amazon’s Director, Fire TV, Tim Twerdahl said in a briefing yesterday that every one of Amazon’s original TV shows will be available in that resolution, and that all of Netflix’s 4K content will be available on the Fire TV as well.
I can find a place in my life for a $50 tablet. If only for watching videos and streams, $50 is an acceptable price for a device for media consumption.
Just noticed that 10 inch tablet has a lower ppi than all the other tablets, even the 50 dollar tablet has a higher res. Guessing than Amazon is working on a HDX model.
Amazon’s new Fire TV could have used a little more time in the oven.
The Seattle Web giant’s new set-top box, launched this week, is getting complaints about glitch-ridden software, an uncooperative remote control — and a notable lack of functionality with third-party apps from rivals like Netflix.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, the new 4K version of the Fire TV had drawn 174 critical reviews on Amazon’s site following its Monday launch, versus 93 positive reviews, giving it an overall rating of 2.8 stars out of five.
That’s well short of the 4.2-out-of-five rating won during the past year by the previous version of the Fire TV.
The bumpy rollout came just days after Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos banned sales of the upcoming Apple TV from Amazon’s site — a move that was blasted by critics as consumer unfriendly.
“They should have named this product Amazon Glitch TV,” reviewer Zachary Farley wrote Wednesday of the new Fire TV, complaining that its picture cut out repeatedly and the remote wouldn’t stay connected. “It’s not ready for prime time.”
Other reviewers griped that the newly designed remote control’s battery case was difficult to open. Another common complaint: Dolby surround sound was available on Amazon’s Prime video-streaming service, but not on rival apps such as Netflix and Hulu.
“We have identified the issue and will be releasing a software update to resolve it” by Oct. 22, Amazon said of the surround-sound issue.
Amazon officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for further comment.
Amazon.com is introducing two devices designed to amplify the role its voice-controlled assistant Alexa plays in people's homes and lives.
The products unveiled Thursday are echoes of Amazon's Echo, a cylinder-shaped speaker with Internet-connected microphones that became Alexa's first major showcase when it debuted in late 2014. Set these gadgets up and they'll listen for your voice and respond to commands — for instance, to read the morning's headlines.
Both new devices, called the Amazon Tap and Echo Dot, cost less than the $180 Echo and offer slightly different features in an attempt to plant Amazon's Internet-connected microphones in more homes and other places.
In doing so, Amazon hopes to out maneuver rivals Google and Apple in their battle to build hubs in "smart" homes that are being furnished with appliances, electronics and other accoutrements that connect to the Internet.
Bloomberg believes that Amazon is considering buying the rights to a variety of live sporting events as a way of bringing more people into Prime. According to the site's anonymous sources, the firm has made discreet enquiries about picking up licenses for global sports including tennis, golf, soccer and car racing. The company is believed to have a beady eye on domestic sports like baseball and basketball, although knows that traditional broadcasters have that sewn up for the next few years.
The report explains that Amazon hired a former Sports Illustrated executive, James DeLorenzo, to head up a sports division earlier this year. In addition, the company poached a former YouTube executive, Charlie Neiman, to look into partnering with sports companies and build new business opportunities. Amazon has refused to make a public comment, but these preliminary negotiations could be the start of a whole new broadcasting platform.
One of the existential problems that both Amazon and Netflix suffer from is that their audience has to make an effort to reach them. If you're not that interested in highbrow dramas about the modern family, classical music or the political machinery in a bizarro-world White House, you won't bother signing up. Netflix and Amazon have taken two very different routes to broaden their appeal beyond a hardcore audience -- since both are believed to have around 50 million subscribers.
Netflix, for instance, is going for pure populism, and has broadened its outreach beyond blue-chip consumers who enjoy shows like Orange is the New Black. Shows like Fuller House and the deal it signed with Adam Sandler demonstrate how Netflix is attempting to move beyond its traditional customer base. Amazon, meanwhile, is hoping that bundling its own platform with Prime means that its retail customers are, invariably, going to want to check out its more populist original shows.
The rights to live sports broadcasts are likely to be the most lucrative, and expensive, things that broadcasters can buy. For instance, each of the big three networks spends around a billion dollars each year for the right to air NFL Games. In return for that outlay, they can expect audiences of between 18 and 21 million, which would be eye-gougingly high for a company like Amazon.
is there anything I can do to fix it? It seems all pages are just images and does not respond to any font settings etc. Tried with different kindle apps (android, windows) with the same resut :/
The battle over voice assistants is heating up. For the first time, Amazon's digital assistant Alexa will come preinstalled on a smartphone, challenging Apple's Siri and Google Assistant on the turf they've carved out. What's more, it'll come on an Android phone.
Today, China's biggest smartphone maker, Huawei, will deliver an over-the-air update, pushing the Huawei Alexa app to Mate 9 customers in the United States, as promised at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in January.
The large screen Android Mate 9 has been well reviewed, but hasn't really cracked the U.S. market, as none of the big U.S. carriers are selling it yet.
Still, it's a significant move for Amazon as Alexa moves beyond the home and into mobile. Earlier this week, its virtual assistant became available on Apple's iPhone through the Amazon app. Amazon is also in negotiations to integrate Alexa in some Motorola smartphones.
Amazon isn't the only one pushing its digital assistant -- Google recently started pushing its Google Assistant to millions of Android phones running recent operating systems (Marshmallow and Nougat), and Samsung is launching its own assistant, Bixby, on its next flagship smartphone later this month (also an Android).
While Huawei doesn't have much of a presence in the US yet (according to The Information, that could change soon), the Chinese company is the world's third largest smartphone maker. This partnership could give Alexa a foothold in China, a market that Amazon is moving deeper into with its launch of a version of its Prime membership last year.
The software update rolls out on the Mate 9 today at noon PT.