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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

HTML - Lists

HTML offers web authors three ways for specifying lists of information. All lists must contain one or more list elements. Lists may contain − <ul>  − An unordered list. This will list items using plain bullets. <ol>  − An ordered list. This will use different schemes of numbers to list your items. <dl>  − A definition list. This arranges your items in the same way as they are arranged in a dictionary. HTML Unordered Lists An unordered list is a collection of related items that have no special order or sequence. This list is created by using HTML  <ul>  tag. Each item in the list is marked with a bullet. Example <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title> HTML Unordered List </title> </head> <body> <ul> <li> Beetroot </li> <li> Ginger </li> <li> Potato </li> <li> Radis...
Post a Comment
Read more

Asus ROG Phone goes up for pre-order in the UK with £100 discount

After  yesterday's launch in the UK , the Asus ROG Phone is finally set to hit the shelves in the country. However, you still need to wait until December 14 when the actual shipments start but if you hurry up and pre-order you can get the phone for £100 off. Otherwise, the actual price of the phone is £799 and can be found on Asus' official website. Unfortunately, though, there's still no word on the accessories and how much will they cost. We guess we will have to wait some more to find out.
Post a Comment
Read more