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Amazon-owned Twitch finally overhauls its Fire TV app
You'd think that since Amazon owns Twitch, Fire TV devices would be the lead platform for its apps but that isn't the case. However, the latest update for the streaming service favored by gamers on Bezos' set-top box is pretty significant and mirrors a lot of what's available on the console and mobile apps. It even outdoes them in a few ways. Of course you can watch plenty of live streams and the top games being played, but the update also brings in profile pages so you can check out exactly who those broadcasters are and check out their archived videos while you're at it.
TiVo exec explains Bolt strategy, Fire TV app and new Pro next year
When the TiVo Bolt was unveiled earlier this week, most of the questions (that weren't about its odd shape) came from long-time enthusiasts wondering why it doesn't cater to them? Many aren't willing to downgrade from a Roamio Pro's 6 tuners and 3TB storage just to add 4K and commercial skipping. Dave Zatz points out that today TiVo Chief Marketing Officer Ira Bahr has faced the company's most dedicated fans in a thread on TiVo Community, and says not to worry. According to Bahr, "we already have a roadmap plan to bring you something you'll like way better in 2016 (more on this shortly)." As I figured during our Bolt preview, this device is an attempt to connect with new users, among the millions of people buying streaming boxes as they use internet video services to replace or add to traditional TV. As far as the look of the Bolt, Bahr said "my view is that we have to look different."
Amazon pulling Apple TV and Chromecast over Prime Video support
Say goodbye to Prime shipping of the Apple TV and Chromecast. In an email obtained by Bloomberg, Amazon informed marketplace sellers that it would no longer allow the sale of the two devices after October 29. The reason is that they don't offer easy access Amazon Prime Video. An Amazon spokesperson told Engadget, "over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime. It's important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion. Roku, XBOX, PlayStation and Fire TV are excellent choices." Apple TV has yet to add the service and to watch the Prime videos on the Chromecast is less than ideal. The company is keen on making sure its customers are completely intertwined in its services. Apparently the Apple TV and Chromecast didn't offer the interoperability Amazon is expecting from products that compete with their own to stay in the online store.
ITV Player comes to Amazon's Fire TV
ITV's replacement for ITV Player is meant to launch before the end of the year, but that doesn't mean the company is holding back on its app expansion. As promised, the broadcaster has brought ITV Player to the Amazon Fire TV, letting you catch-up on all of your favourite programmes on demand. The rollout is staggered, however, as Fire TV Stick owners will have to wait a couple of weeks until they can get in on the action. And if you've pre-ordered Amazon's new 4K-ready Fire TV, that too will support the app when it starts shipping on October 5th. When ITV Hub does launch, with a focus on live TV, ITV Player will be swapped for the rebranded app, but you shouldn't need to lift a finger.
TiVo's 4K-ready, commercial skipping Bolt hints at the future
This new Bolt DVR may not totally remake the recording technology TiVo is famous for, but it introduces a sharp departure in design and adds features customers have asked for since it started in the late 90s. Just like the leaks suggested, the Bolt is a funky arc-shaped white box that looks different from anything else near your HDTV. Despite being smaller than TiVo's older DVRs -- or whatever cable box you probably have -- it's eye-catching enough for visitors to stop and ask what you're watching TV on. Looks aside, Bolt's main claim to fame will definitely be its ability to bypass commercials with a new SkipMode (No more hidden 30 second skip! We've been asking for this since 2009). That's actually an old trick, and while it's appreciated, where I see evidence of TiVo looking towards the future is the way it's connecting the DVR to Amazon's Fire TV.
Amazon Fire TV comes out to play with 4K and Alexa, stays at $99
If you're one of the folks that's purchased a 4K TV, Amazon has some good news for you: The new Fire TV supports 4K and still costs $99.99 (£80). In addition to handling all those extra pixels, the voice remote now calls up Alexa, the Echo assistant with access to more than just movie and TV titles. Ask it about the weather, sports, traffic and have it play music from your Amazon playlists and Prime. All of the information is displayed on your TV. The company also announced a $49.99 (£45) Fire TV Stick with a Voice Remote (finally) and a new game controller also with voice control and a headphone jack so your zombie shooting ways don't disturb the rest of the house.
FCC listing hints at an Amazon Fire TV with microSD slot
Amazon hasn't announced anything official about a next-gen Fire TV yet, but blogger Dave Zatz has spotted what could be an FCC filing for one. The documents call the device an "HDMI Digital Media Receiver" and were filed by a "Quill Royal LLC," though it's worth noting that Amazon uses shell names all the time. If this is indeed the next-gen Fire TV, then you can expect a more powerful device all around. It has an Ethernet and a USB port that can read flash drives, as well as a microSD card slot. The media player also supports 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1.
GameFly brings game streaming to Samsung smart TVs
Is it still soon for video game streaming services? Maybe. OnLive is gone and PlayStation Now has had a rocky launch, making GameFly's entrance all the more surprising. After launching on Amazon's Fire TV, the game rental company is bringing its new "GameFly Streaming" service to Samsung smart TVs in the US, Canada and eight new European markets. It means that with nothing but a controller and a stellar internet connection, you can turn on your TV and play some "AAA" console games. GameFly is pitching it as a "Netflix of Games," but the pricing model isn't quite that simple. Instead of a single fee, you'll have to choose one of its monthly bundles that come with a small smattering of pre-selected titles. The other problem is that, like many of its rivals, the games on offer aren't particularly fresh. To name but a few, there's Sleeping Dogs, Dirt 3 and Batman: Arkham Origins -- all good games, but nothing that'll be vying for Game of the Year 2015.
HBO Now arrives on Amazon's Fire TV and Fire TV Stick
We knew it was coming, and now it's here. HBO Now, the network's standalone streaming service, is available on Amazon's Fire TV and Fire TV Stick devices after making its way to Android gadgets and the Chromecast earlier this summer. A $15 monthly subscription gets you access to HBO's library of content, including shows like Game of Thrones, True Detective and more. If you've been itchin' to give it a go on your Amazon streaming gear, a quick download is all that stands between you and rewatching The Sopranos this weekend. [Image credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images]
Add Google Cast to your Fire TV with an $8 app
Buyers remorse can be a terrible thing as you always wonder if you'd have been better off picking the other device when stood in the aisle at Best Buy. Thankfully if you've got $7.99 lying around and kinda regret grabbing Amazon's Fire TV, then help is at hand thanks to YouMap. The app enables you to trick the hardware into thinking that it's a Chromecast, letting you mirror your Chrome browsing or push YouTube clips straight from your smartphone. The app works for both the Fire TV and the stick, and while it won't give you all the functionality of Google's video dongle, you'll at least be able to see how the other half live.
HBO Now hits Android devices, coming soon to Chromecast and Fire TV
After HBO Now was announced for Apple devices earlier this year, the network promised to bring it to the Android faithful this summer. Well, the time has come. If you own an Android phone or tablet (including Amazon's Fire devices), you can now access the standalone TV streaming option for $15 a month. You'll still have to wait to employ a Chromecast, Fire TV or Fire TV Stick to do your watching, though, but the service is said to arrive on those gadgets soon enough. Apple's 90-day exclusive window has ended, which allows folks who prefer Google's operating system a chance to give HBO Now a shot three months after its debut. And it doesn't require a cable subscription like HBO Go. If you decide to take the leap, you'll get access to shows like Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley and True Detective in addition to a library of older series (The Sopranos, etc.) and movies. However, if you choose to wait until you can stream it to your set-top box or dongle, we can't blame you.
These are the Amazon UK 'Prime Day' deals you should know about
Ready for some deals? Today is Amazon's so-called "Prime Day," an exclusive 24-hour promotion for people that have signed up to Prime. Yes, it's a marketing gimmick, but if you're already paying for the service -- or have been debating a subscription recently -- there are some worthwhile gadgets being sold on the cheap. Some of the daily deals last until midnight, but in typical Amazon fashion there are also "lightning" discounts that will only be available for shorter periods. To take advantage of everything decent, you'll probably need to drop in sporadically or keep an eye on social media.
Amazon's Fire TV is a hit among US consumers, says report
Its ability to do everything, from video-streaming to gaming, makes the Fire TV a solid home entertainment product. And people in the US are starting to take note of this. According to Strategy Analytics, an independent firm that researches the consumer market, Amazon's Fire TV accounted for 30 percent of streaming set-top box shipments in Q1 2015. During this period, which measures numbers from January 1st to March 31st, a total of 3.5 million units were shipped to US consumers, with Fire TV picking up steam despite being introduced over a year ago. That said, the Apple TV is reportedly still king of the streaming set-top space, having shipped more than 15 million units to date -- not bad for a hobby, Apple.
Play PC games on your Amazon Fire TV through GameFly
Amazon's Fire TV devices may be focused primarily on Android games, but they can now do some PC gaming in a pinch. The media hubs have just scored an exclusive GameFly app that streams a mix of PC titles (such as the Batman series and Dirt 3) in subscription-based game packs starting at $7 a month. Suffice it to say you'll want to snag a gamepad if you're going to use this feature at all. No, this probably won't make you forget about dedicated consoles or NVIDIA's Shield, but it's a big deal if the Fire TV is your only living room game machine.
Comcast unlocks HBO and Showtime streaming to Amazon Fire TV
Streaming services that use a cable TV subscription have an annoying wrinkle, where sometimes the provider can block them from working in places for apparently no reason at all. For Comcast customers that was the case for HBO Go and Showtime on Amazon's Fire TV and Fire TV stick, but starting today that changes. Like the agreement it reached a few months ago with Roku, Comcast is suddenly playing nice with Amazon's streaming hardware. Unfortunately, that courtesy still does not extend to Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, but according to Comcast it supports over 90 networks across 18 devices and expects that number to grow, so maybe there is hope.
Amazon adds IMDb-fueled X-Ray for Movies to Fire TV
Amazon's X-Ray for Movies and TV Shows feature is great when you're trying to figure out the name of the actor on your screen. Today that feature is hitting Amazon Instant Video on the Fire TV, which is frankly where it should have been since the set-top box's launch. The IMDb-powered X-Ray feature brings many of the same attributes found on the Fire tablet to your television. To activate it, viewers can either pause what they are watching or press up on the remote's directional button to see the names of the actors and music playing in the current scene. Pressing up a second time drops the viewer into the full X-Ray environment with access to information about the actors, characters, music and IMDb's user-submitted trivia.
Amazon Fire TV players will soon work in your hotel room
Amazon's Fire TV and Fire TV Stick will soon be much more useful, especially if you're outside of the US. Thanks to an impending update, both streaming media hubs will work in dorm rooms, hotels and other places where you have to sign in before you get online -- you can pack your device on that big vacation. The two also get support for Prime Music playlists, shortcuts for screen mirroring and hidden PIN codes when you make a purchase. You're in for the biggest treat if you have a full-fledged Fire TV box, since you'll get support for USB storage (to hold all your extra apps and games) and Bluetooth headphones (for those late-night movies).
AllCast media streaming finally comes to iOS
The slow road for AllCast to bring its media streaming app to iOS is over, as today marks the app's launch on Apple's mobile OS. I got a chance to spend some time with it, and, even without any experience with its Android counterpart, getting around and tossing photos and videos from Dropbox, iCloud and Instagram to my plasma TV from my iPad Mini 2 was incredibly easy. Simply open the application, grant permission for it to access your photos, hit the familiar cast icon in the lower left, pick a target Chromecast (or Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku, Xbox and some smart TVs) and you're good to go. Swipe left or right through your media and it'll appear on your screen milliseconds later. Simple!
HBO Go is on Amazon's Fire TV now, Fire TV stick soon
It only took seven or so months since it was first announced, but HBO Go is now available on Amazon's Fire TV (along with SlingPlayer). Owners of the Fire TV Stick dongle will have to wait until this spring for access, but since they're probably Amazon Prime subscribers too, at least they have plenty of older HBO shows to stream in the meantime. The other bad news? HBO tells us that Comcast and Charter are currently not on the list of supported streaming providers. According to Amazon its selection of apps has quadrupled since launch, and the box is currently on sale for $79 instead of the $99 regular price, in case your holiday shopping isn't over with yet.
Amazon's latest Fire TV update lets you play a wider range of games
If your Fire TV box regularly doubles as a game console, today's your lucky day. Amazon has released an update that lets you play a wide range of "tablet-style" games so long as you have the media hub's official game controller; you don't have to worry about tracking down gamepad-friendly titles. It's a worthy upgrade if you aren't an avid gamer, too. You can now mirror the screen of any Android device, not just those linked to your Amazon account. Also, you can bring your set-top with you from the US to the UK, or vice versa -- if you move across the Atlantic, you won't run into trouble. The Fire TV upgrade should be live right now, so have at it if you're an owner.
