Amazon FireTV Stick announced

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tomsem

It makes a lot of sense. Fire TV is a lot more powerful than Echo. Surely Fire tablets will have Alexa like voice assistant as well.

One would hope so. I find "Siri" on my iPad and iPhone to be amazingly useful.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tomsem

It makes a lot of sense. Fire TV is a lot more powerful than Echo. Surely Fire tablets will have Alexa like voice assistant as well.

That is the expectation.
With Cortana coming to Android and Siri coming to AppleTV Amazon needs to deploy Alexa all over.

I'm not 100% sold on the idea that Alexa will show up on current FireTV hardware but I do expect it on the new tablets and streamers.
(If it does show up I'll be thrilled. Might even pick up a voice remote.)

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

I'm not 100% sold on the idea that Alexa will show up on current FireTV hardware but I do expect it on the new tablets and streamers.
(If it does show up I'll be thrilled. Might even pick up a voice remote.)

One thing I really hate about Amazon is the way they deploy implementation of new features. Even when older hardware is capable of handling these new features, Amazon either fails to implement them or drags its feet when it does implement them.

If Amazon adds Alexa to its newer lineup of tablets and TV, there's no reason why they can't add it to their older devices.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

One thing I really hate about Amazon is the way they deploy implementation of new features. Even when older hardware is capable of handling these new features, Amazon either fails to implement them or drags its feet when it does implement them.

If Amazon adds Alexa to its newer lineup of tablets and TV, there's no reason why they can't add it to their older devices.

At least they're consistent about it.
"Last year's model" almost always gets it, eventually, and two year old models rarely do.
So you know what to expect.

I don't expect Alexa on my Fire tablet but I do hope to see it on the FireTV stick at some point.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

At least they're consistent about it.
"Last year's model" almost always gets it, eventually, and two year old models rarely do.
So you know what to expect.

I don't expect Alexa on my Fire tablet but I do hope to see it on the FireTV stick at some point.

I'm very close to giving up on Fire devices. I was very miffed when my 1st gen HD was passed over on the Mojito upgrade, even though the hardware was more than capable of handling it. If my 1st gen HDX 8.9 gets passed over for new upgrades this time around, then that'll be it for Fire. I'll switch to $100 7" Galaxy Tabs.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I'm very close to giving up on Fire devices. I was very miffed when my 1st gen HD was passed over on the Mojito upgrade, even though the hardware was more than capable of handling it. If my 1st gen HDX 8.9 gets passed over for new upgrades this time around, then that'll be it for Fire. I'll switch to $100 7" Galaxy Tabs.

My 2012 HD 8.9 gave me a (failure to boot) scare a couple weeks back so I'm keeping an eye on the 8in Asus ZenPad and the low-end WinTabs.

I might consider the upcoming 8in Fire but the price had better be low to get me to stick with Android instead of a full and robust OS.

(On the other hand, the FireTV line is getting very interesting and if they add Alexa--and home automation--it would be compelling, despite Android's failings.)

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I'll switch to $100 7" Galaxy Tabs.

Unless something has changed drastically don't expect oodles of updates from Samsung on any hardware as it gets older either.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Unless something has changed drastically don't expect oodles of updates from Samsung on any hardware as it gets older either.

Oh, I fully expect that. But now that Android has features like Prime Video downloads, Fire devices are becoming irrelevant.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I'm very close to giving up on Fire devices. I was very miffed when my 1st gen HD was passed over on the Mojito upgrade, even though the hardware was more than capable of handling it. If my 1st gen HDX 8.9 gets passed over for new upgrades this time around, then that'll be it for Fire. I'll switch to $100 7" Galaxy Tabs.

They have done better recently, updating the last two generations to Kit Kat, and the Lollypop beta runs on last year's tablets so I assume they will eventually get that as well. Should get a bit of performance boost from that. It's important to keep things current, or developers will be less likely to keep feeding the Appstore, and it helps if everything uses the same OS version.

That said, Google Play is much better source of apps, and Fire tablets are not that much cheaper than 'real' Android tablets with similar specs. That does not seem likely to change.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by tomsem

It's important to keep things current, or developers will be less likely to keep feeding the Appstore, and it helps if everything uses the same OS version.

That's for sure; especially since Amazon has complete control over both hardware and OS. As long as the hardware can support the latest updates, Amazon should should be pushing them to older generations. Limiting the latest OS updates to two generations is stupid.

That said, Google Play is much better source of apps, and Fire tablets are not that much cheaper than 'real' Android tablets with similar specs. That does not seem likely to change.

I paid $100 for a new Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 last November.

[koland]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One would hope so. I find "Siri" on my iPad and iPhone to be amazingly useful.

I find it and google voice search and alexa annoying and invasive. I turn off immediately and would remove if it were possible. Instead, it's just bloatware eating up memory that could be used for better purposes.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by koland

I find it and google voice search and alexa annoying and invasive. I turn off immediately and would remove if it were possible. Instead, it's just bloatware eating up memory that could be used for better purposes.

I guess I can I see how one, from a certain point of view, might call any feature of any product that they don't personally use 'bloat.' Like if you never have a passenger in your car, you might call the passenger seat 'bloat.'
But I can't see how the word 'invasive' applies here. In all cases you'd need to explicitly choose to use the feature, and that feature is just an alternate interface method for a device you'd have chosen to own, which is purpose-built to be a smart, Internet connected data appliance.
That would be like paying someone to come to your house, ordering him inside, then calling him an invader when he does.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by koland

I find it and google voice search and alexa annoying and invasive. I turn off immediately and would remove if it were possible. Instead, it's just bloatware eating up memory that could be used for better purposes.

Which just goes to prove that different things appeal to different people . For me, it's a lot easier and quicker to pick up my iPhone, press and hold the "Home" button, and say "what's the weather going to be like tomorrow?" or "set an alarm for 6 o'clock in the morning" than to do the same things using apps.

[tubemonkey]

Fire OS 5 with Alexa coming to 1st-gen Fire TV and Fire TV Stick in October

The new Fire TV will begin arriving at customer’s doorsteps with Fire OS 5 on October 5th. I’m told by trusted sources at Amazon that around the same time, existing 1st generation Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks will receive a software update that will upgrade them to Fire OS 5. Along with this update will be all the Alexa features that will be present on the new Fire TV. Fire TV Stick owners without a voice remote will be able to use the Fire TV Remote App to issue Alexa voice commands.

[Cinisajoy]

I love the Google voice search.