Skip to main content

Amazon upgrades its Fire TV Stick with the new Alexa Voice Remote

Amazon  is giving its Fire TV Stick an upgrade. The company announced today it will now ship the Fire TV Stick with the new version of the Alexa Voice Remote launched last fall. The remote allows users to control other devices besides their Fire TV, thanks to its support for both Bluetooth and multi-directional infrared. However, the upgraded remote won’t impact the Fire TV Stick’s price, which remains $39.99.
The new Alexa remote was arrived alongside the $49.99 Fire TV Stick 4K in October. It’s capable of controlling the TV, soundbar and other AV equipment, and can do things like switch inputs or tune to a channel on your cable box. As a standalone purchase for older Amazon Fire TV devices, the remote was retailing yesterday for $29.99. But today, Amazon is slashing the price by 50 percent, it says.
The voice remote also includes the ability to speak to Alexa with a press of a button, which can help you find shows and movies, control smart home devices, get the news and weather, stream music and more.
Amazon notes the inclusion of the next-gen remote makes the Fire TV Stick the only streaming media player under $40 that includes a remote capable of controlling other AV equipment besides the TV. This could be a selling point for Fire TV Stick versus Roku, whose high-end voice remotes are focused on controlling power and volume on TVs, or its own Roku wireless speakers.
At CES this year, Amazon said its Fire TV platform as a whole had now topped over 30 million active users, which seemed to put it just ahead of Roku’s 27 million. By swapping in a better remote with the flagship Fire TV Stick device, Amazon is looking to solidify its lead gained by steep discounts on its devices over Black Friday and the larger 2018 holiday shopping season.
The updated Fire TV Stick will also be the first to ship with Amazon’s just launched, free streaming service IMDb Freedive included. Announced at CES, the service offers a range of free, ad-supported movies and TV shows – a challenge to its rival’s service, The Roku Channel. It will come to other Fire TV devices by way of a software update.
The Fire TV Stick with the new Alexa Voice Remote goes on pre-order today for $39.99 (or £39.99 in the U.K.), and will be available in a bundle with the Echo Dot for $69.98.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

HTML - Phrase Tags

The phrase tags have been desicolgned for specific purposes, though they are displayed in a similar way as other basic tags like  <b>, <i>, <pre> , and  <tt> , you have seen in previous chapter. This chapter will take you through all the important phrase tags, so let's start seeing them one by one. Emphasized Text Anything that appears within  <em>...</em>  element is displayed as emphasized text. Example <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Emphasized Text Example</title> </head> <body> <p>The following word uses an <em>emphasized</em> typeface.</p> </body> </html> This will produce the following result − Marked Text Anything that appears with-in  <mark>...</mark>  element, is displayed as marked with yellow ink. Example <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <tit...

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro price and processor details leaked online

Xiaomi recently launched the Redmi Note 7 in China and will launch its Redmi Note 7 Pro next month. Now, the pricing details and processor specifications have been leaked online. A tipster by the name Dream Dust (according to Google Translate) on Weibo claims that the upcoming device from Redmi by Xiaomi will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor. He also stated that the device will be priced at 1,499 Yuan, which roughly translates to Rs 16,000. Qualcomm launched its 11nm based Snapdragon 675 processor back in October. The processor comes with an octa-core Kryo 675 CPU paired with an Adreno 612 GPU.

The new TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Tourbillon Nanograph is a lot of buzzwords in a beautiful package

Almost every word in the name of TAG Heuer’s new watch – the Carrera  Calibre Heuer 02T Tourbillon Nanograph – is important. Carrera connects it to TAG’s long history of chronographs while Calibre suggests a handmade watch made with some technical prowess. Tourbillon means you can expect this thing to cost more than a car (about $25,000 when it goes on sale) and Nanograph suggests that this thing is doing something quite unique. And it is. TAG Heuer loves experimenting with new materials and the Nanograph features a new hairspring design that is unique to TAG. The hairspring, which is made of carbon-composite, is lightweight and unaffected by gravity or shock. It also offers “perfect concentric oscillations” and is completely antimagnetic. Couple that with the rotating tourbillon and the suggestion is that this watch will remain accurate under all sorts of pressure. Further, rest of the movement includes carbon fiber and aluminum which reduces the effects of temperat...