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Amazon brings Alexa's Follow-Up Mode to Fire TV Cube
Last week, Amazon updated Fire TV Cube with the Alexa Announcements feature (which lets you dictate a message that the other Echo devices in your home will broadcast) and notifications from your smart doorbell and camera. Now, Amazon's giving the device even more parity with the Echo ecosystem by adding Follow-Up Mode and multiroom audio.
Alexa's one-way intercom feature arrives on Fire TV Cube
If you have several Echo (or Sonos One or Beam) devices around your home, you might already be aware of the Alexa Announcements feature -- speak into one device and the others broadcast that message over their speakers. To knit its ecosystem closer together, Amazon is bringing the one-way intercom tool to the Fire TV Cube.
Amazon's gamepad no longer works with newer Fire TVs
If you were hoping to use your recent Fire TV as a game console, you might need to shop carefully. According to AFTVnews, Amazon has used an update to pull support for its official Game Controller from the third-generation Fire TV, and has listed the pendant Fire TV, Fire TV Edition smart TVs and the Fire TV Cube as incompatible with the peripheral despite working properly as of this writing. You'll need a second-generation or earlier Fire TV box or Stick if you want to keep playing with first-party hardware.
Alexa voice control arrives for select DirecTV set-top boxes
If you have DirecTV and you're fed up of having to use an old-fashioned remote to get to the content you want to watch, starting today, you can just holler at Amazon's Alexa voice assistant to do the work for you. Alexa is now compatible with the Genie HR44, HR54, Genie 2 and Genie Mini set-top boxes.
Amazon Fire TV Cube review: Alexa still needs work as a TV guide
Update: While we originally planned to do a deeper dive into the Fire TV Cube, several days of testing didn't reveal much more about the device. We've updated our first look with a new conclusion, and have assigned it a review score. When you consider the popularity of Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa and the company's Fire TV streamers, it was really just a matter of time before the folks at the Everything Store decided to mash them up. In fact, Amazon already has, sort of: The company started down that path last year by giving Echo devices the ability to pass commands along to a Fire TV or Fire TV Stick. With the new Fire TV Cube, though, Amazon is trying to break down the wall between Alexa and the content you want to see altogether.
Amazon's Fire TV Cube squeezes an Echo into its set-top box
It's been almost four years since Amazon first introduced the Echo smart speaker and its virtual assistant Alexa. It's also been just over four years since the the company first released its Fire TV set-top video box. Now, the two products are converging in a way they haven't before, in the form of the Amazon Fire TV Cube. As you might expect, it's a cube-shaped box you plug in to your TV; it runs the expected suite of apps like Netflix, Hulu, PlayStation Vue, HBO Go, Sling and Amazon's Prime Video service. And like the current Fire TV Stick and Fire TV box, you can talk to Alexa to search for movies and shows as well as access thousands of third-party "skills." But the Fire TV Cube is essentially a full-featured Echo, as well. It's always listening for the Alexa wake word, and you can talk to it even when your TV is off. The new box has eight microphones built in, similar to existing Echo hardware, which means you can speak to Alexa whenever you want as well as navigate the Fire TV Cube's interface with your voice.
Amazon confirms the existence of a 'Fire TV Cube' (update)
The next-generation Fire TV might take on a cube-shaped form. AFTVNews has discovered a page on Amazon's website where you can sign up to receive more info about a certain "Fire TV Cube." While the page is pretty much empty other than the words "What is Fire TV Cube?" and the promise of more details coming soon, it could be all about the box-like device the same publication leaked last year. Back in September, AFTVNews published the photo you can see above. It said the boxy contraption on the right is some sort of a Fire TV-Echo Dot hybrid with hands-free Alexa support.
