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The Engadget Podcast is live at 12PM ET!
Spring is in the air, our TVs are on Fire, and we're all back together once again for another episode of The Engadget Podcast. Amazon wasn't the only circus in town this week; Microsoft's Build conference enthralled gaggles of developers with talk of Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1, and a fictional blue AI lending her voice to the latter via Cortana. Oh, and Apple finally announced their big TV initiative. APRIL FOOLS! Join us at noon ET in the stream below! Bring your questions, and a donut or two wouldn't hurt. We like donuts.
Amazon Fire TV teardown reveals an easily accessible media hub
We've already established that Amazon's Fire TV is a capable (if imperfect) set-top box, but how hard is it to replace components if they conk out? Not very, if you ask iFixit. The repair outfit has torn down the device and discovered that it's very simply built -- there are very few parts, and a regular screwdriver is enough to take apart the internals. The power supply is separate, too. Amazon's media hub isn't quite a fix-it-yourself paradise, though. It's tricky to remove the outer case, and the single circuit board inside will be expensive to replace. Still, it's good to know that the Fire TV isn't much more difficult to maintain than its big rival.
Daily Roundup: Amazon Fire TV, Microsoft announces Windows Phone 8.1 and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for April 2, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
An afternoon with the Fire TV
We came away relatively impressed with the Fire TV during our brief hands-on. But we all know that units set up specifically for press demonstrations are hardly the best indicator of how a device will function in the real world. So we immediately went back to our lair and began putting the newest kid on the streaming block through its paces. Once away from the carefully controlled demonstration area, it became clear that the Fire TV is more of a mixed bag -- and still tied to its Android/Google TV roots -- than Amazon would like you to believe.
Fire TV 'isn't trying' to be a game console, but is Amazon's first real investment in gaming
What is Fire TV? Well, it's Amazon's set-top box. Er, at least it has that functionality. But Fire TV does more than just stream media, thankfully; we've got plenty of devices that do that stuff. The $99 tiny black box that Amazon unveiled this morning in New York City streams media (video and music through a variety of services) and it also plays games. Despite that being half the device's functionality, Amazon VP Pete Larsen reassured us that Fire TV "isn't trying to be a game console." So, what is it trying to be then?
Amazon's Fire TV promises a premium set-top experience (update: hands-on video)
The first thing you notice when you pick up the Fire TV is how incredibly dense it is. It's tiny and encased in black matte plastic, but it feels like a solid brick of aluminum. That's not terribly surprising when you consider all of the power Amazon has crammed inside this thing. Though we're not sure about the speeds on its quad-core CPU and dedicated GPU, the company claims it has three times the processing power of its rivals like Roku and Apple TV. In any case, it's clear the silicon inside is pretty beefy, and it's likely that the chassis is a giant heatsink. During our brief time with the device, it was every bit as quick and impressive as it was during the on-stage demo. Voice searches were quick, if not exactly flawless thanks to the rather noisy demo area. It was less than a second from when I finished speaking to when the results popped up on screen (though, it seemed odd that Amazon assumed I meant "Klint Eastwood"). Despite its insistence that it handled search better than platforms like Roku, we'd have to say things aren't so cut and dry. Sure, you can voice search using the microphone on the remote, but searching with text requires the same cumbersome reliance on the remote's directional pad and an onscreen keyboard. Not to mention that Roku and Chromecast are also able to deliver voice search through their respective mobile apps.
Using Amazon's Fire TV gamepad (surprise: it's pretty good!)
Surprising no one, Amazon's Fire TV gamepad is exactly what we already saw pass through the Brazilian FCC recently. In those pictures, however, it looked rough. In real life, thankfully, it's a much nicer piece of hardware. We've just spent 10 minutes playing Minecraft on a Fire TV at the event, and came away fairly impressed. It feels an awful lot like an Xbox 360 gamepad, most specifically the dual analog sticks. We've got more nuanced impressions beyond the break, so head below with us!
Amazon's first Fire TV games include in-house titles and Minecraft (update: video)
Amazon's new Fire TV media hub may be focused on video, but it's going to have a significant game roster -- including some examples from the company itself. Amazon Game Studios is building more than a dozen titles for the set-top box that include Sev Zero, a Gears of War-like sci-fi shooter. You'll have some third-party games to choose from, of course, such a special port of Minecraft Pocket Edition, a Monsters Inc. endless runner, the arcade racer Asphalt 8 and You Don't Know Jack. "Thousands" of games will be available within a month, and you'll see software from major developers like Ubisoft and Take-Two. While you shouldn't count on Fire TV replacing your PS4 or Xbox One anytime soon, it's evident that you won't be hurting for things to play. Update: Amazon has posted a video teasing some of the Fire TV and Kindle Fire games that it's working on. Check it out below! Update 2: Want to see the complete list of launch apps and games for the Fire TV? Check them out here.
Amazon launches Fire TV, an Android-powered streaming and gaming set-top box for $99
We've been waiting for it for quite some time, but now Amazon is finally ready to make its play for the living room. Fire TV is not a barebones device like the Chromecast; it's a powerful Android-driven platform with ties to the broader Amazon ecosystem. Inside the slim black plastic box is a quad-core CPU with a full 2GB of RAM -- that makes it more akin to a high-end smartphone than your typical streaming device. And it's incredibly slim, shorter than a dime, with barely enough clearance for the small selection of ports around back, which includes the standard HDMI, as well as optical audio and Ethernet. The interface is incredibly image-heavy. Browsing through the Amazon video store is basically just scrolling through an endless barrage of movie posters presented in a moving 3D bar. And, at least during the demo, the hardware churned through the slick UI with nary a hiccup in sight. But far more impressive was how quick videos were to load. Pressing play on almost any video instantaneously launched the movie or show. And we mean instantaneously. There was no pause, lag or loading screen -- it's impressive to say the least.
