Quote:
Originally Posted by jswinden
According to people like Laridae and his fellow Android is God group, anything that isn't pure Android is a walled garden. BS!
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Android/Linux is the OS of the me generation -- a distro for every single person and using it let's one imagine he is sticking it to The Man.
It took a couple days for the XBMC team to get it running on Fire TV. Amazon didn't rush out a patch to prevent such hacks a la Roku and Chromecast.
Amazon has a walled garden with a gate. Their app store makes installation of vetted apps simple for the less technical while protecting them from all the bad things that happen in the Play store. At the same time, flip a switch and you are free to install and [hopefully] run any app that can be side loaded.
I don't know what is coming, but I know it will be reasonably priced and well supported.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jswinden
I'm sure it will sell dozens of units like its cousin the AmazonTV!  But then people will realize that it is just a modified Android device that cannot use the Google Play Store, and they will notice that whatever Amazon Prime perks it comes with won't amount to the value of a wooden nickle. So it will flameout just like the AmazonTV will. |
I'm going to guess you have not yet had a chance to play with a Fire TV. We have two at my house -- one I bought to evaluate and one I bought for my kids so I could evaluate the first one I bought. We also got their controller. We like both a lot.
At launch, FTV did everything it did better than the competition -- it had YouTube, Netflix with support for profiles, high quality games, and support for real game controllers. Since then, Amazon has added more than 150 apps.
As for it being little more than a house branded android device, you could not be more wrong. Integration with the Fire tablets has no peer except in iLand. This, of course, is the aPhone opportunity -- to integrate with other devices so that the value of the ecosystem is greater than the sum of its parts.
I don't want to get ahead of Bezos, but cell phone services are over priced and perform poorly. I refer to mine as my device of last resort. Adding data plans for a family of four can run $200 a month! They are not well suited for children. I expect Amazon to address these issues.
- I expect to see parental controls on this phone -- just as there are on the Fire and Fire TV.
- I expect to pay a reasonable price for the device and the service -- just as I have for my Fires and Fire TVs.
- I hope that it is WiFi savvy so it can use WiFi for data and voice whenever possible.
- I expect the device to act as a remote and second screen for Fire TV.
Mostly, though, I expect to be able to take it out of the box, do a simple setup, and use the device. I expect my mother to be able to do the same.
If some of that happens, we will trade in our Verizon plan for an Amazon plan.