Amazon FireTV Stick announced

[QuantumIguana]

I tried one of mine out, took quite a while to run the updates, but the stick worked quite well. The Prime Music was quite nice. Still no update for the Fire TV box, that should be coming soon. The stick will get put back in its box to be given away on Christmas.

[nprentiss]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Sounds like something your urologist might ask

Ha! My urologist knows more about the Kindle Fire Stick than Amazon's customer support did!

[DiapDealer]

Like a few others have mentioned; the initial software update was painfully slow (it actually failed to download once, and I had to power cycle the device a couple of times), but once updated and I logged back into my wifi, everything seemed to work like a champ (Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video/Music, Plex, PBS). I'm assuming the new firmware image was huge and update servers were getting hammered. Later devices will probably start shipping with newer firmware, so things should get better from a "just fire it up and make it go" stand-point.

Unfortunately, the "Home" button on the Fire remote is in the location of the Select/OK button on my Roku remote. That's been the cause of several "oh fudge" moments so far.

I do find the Home Screen a little too "busy" for my utilitarian tastes, but maybe they'll allow some customization of that down the road.

[Catlady]

Isn't it a little odd that a brand-new device needs a software update?

[frahse]

[QUOTE=DiapDealer;2981396]You want a usb slot/card-reader on a stick?

As far as playing stuff from your computer ... one word: Plex.[/QUOTE


I put movies/videos/picures on flash drives for several reasons. It would be a useful aside if the FireStick could handle them without me having to move them to the cloud, etc.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Isn't it a little odd that a brand-new device needs a software update?

Not in the day and age of upgradable connected devices, no.
In fact, I can't remember the last device of this type I got that DIDN'T get an update on first activation, from Phones to Kindles, to Chromecast, to Roku to my Bluray player. Even my wife's last digital camera.

Depending on your worldview and preferred degree of cynicism, you can choose to see this as manufacturers making use of a remarkable technological benefit of being able to quickly address issues and add new features, or you may see it as manufacturers exploiting the ability to ship devices before they are ready, hoping to get a working upgrade sent out before too many people complain.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Mine shows Jan 12 delivery.

Misery loves company.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by frahse

I put movies/videos/picures on flash drives for several reasons. It would be a useful aside if the FireStick could handle them without me having to move them to the cloud, etc.

Oh, I understand the reasoning for storing media on flashdrives and usb sticks--and for wanting streaming devices to be able to access them. I just think it's a little unrealistic to expect to be able to plug a usb drive into a streaming stick that's not much bigger than a usb drive in the first place. The regular Fire TV unit and other "box"-type streamers... sure. But where space is at an all-time premium, it's not likely that i/o hardware for accessing peripheral media is going to happen.

And even the units that CAN access external drives are typically hamstrung by whatever audio/video codecs the hardware has chosen to support. Meaning people are constantly converting their libraries so the latest and greatest toys can natively play them. That's why media servers that can transcode on the fly and stream to an accompanying client app have become so popular.

[QuantumIguana]

Having the devices get a firmware update when the user sets it up speeds up the process. It allows them to manufacture the devices without having to wait until the final firmware update is ready, which gets it in our hands faster. It would be terribly slow if they had to get the firmware update ready, and then program them all.

I have to imagine that Amazon's servers are getting slammed with firmware updates now, so the sticks will get it first, then it will be available to the boxes. I got my box in June, had I known the stick was coming out, I would have waited. But I think I will keep the box. I am tempted to keep the stick, it would be a good as a portable player, but I really don't travel all that much.

I still have my old first-generation Roku box. It works - more or less - but has been getting flaky. I may deregister it and donate it.

[conan50]

Amazon might be making these devices much more valuable to non-Prime customers
http://nypost.com/2014/11/21/amazon-...o-alternative/

[JoHunt]

Originally Posted by conan50

Amazon might be making these devices much more valuable to non-Prime customers
http://nypost.com/2014/11/21/amazon-...o-alternative/

Less than $7.99 but with ads? No thank you. I stay far away from Hulu Plus due to the annoying ads. Ad-free Netflix for $7.99 a month is great

[conan50]

Originally Posted by joehunt

Less than $7.99 but with ads? No thank you. I stay far away from Hulu Plus due to the annoying ads. Ad-free Netflix for $7.99 a month is great

It would have to be significantly less as Prime comes out to about $8.25 a month if my math is correct.
I think it will come down to price and how many ads users must put up with. I also wonder if we are beginning to see a decoupling of the streaming services and the shipping service.
Prime would only be useful to me as a streaming service, so I would be interested in a video streaming only service at the right price and without onerous, too frequent, ads.

[tubemonkey]

Best Buy & Staples to sell Fire TV Stick for $24 starting 11/23

Starting November 23rd thru the 29th, both Best Buy and Staples will be discounting the Fire TV Stick down from its retail price of $39. Best Buy will sell the device for $24.99 while Staples will sell it for a little less at $24 even. My contact at Best Buy tells me stores here in Los Angeles will be getting about 80 units each. No word on whether the sale prices will also be available on each retailer’s websites. Some Best Buy locations have incorrectly put up the display you see above early, resulting in a few customers getting a jump start on the sale.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Wanna swap 2 Fire Sticks for 1 Echo? I'll pay shipping.

Sorry, I am loving it. Sit on the couch, and using the remote, tell it to play an album of playlist, the then say "Alexa skip" when it gets to a song I don't like.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Sorry, I am loving it. Sit on the couch, and using the remote, tell it to play an album of playlist, the then say "Alexa skip" when it gets to a song I don't like.

Sweet!