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On Heels of Fire Phone Dud, Amazon Unveils Fire TV Stick

Amazon's earnings last week confirmed what most analysts have been guessing for several months: Amazon's smartphone is a dud. A combination of uninteresting gimmicks and AT&T exclusivity hindered the phone out of the gate, and while Amazon isn't sharing the number of units sold, the company did say they took a $170 million charge on inventory commitments last quarter because of the device and is sitting on another $83 million in unsold phones.

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More successful has been Amazon's Fire TV products, and with that in mind Amazon today took direct aim at Google's Chromecast with the new $39 Fire TV stick.

According to the company, Amazon opened pre-orders for the device starting today, and is selling it for $19 the next two days to Amazon Prime members.

According to Amazon the dual-core processor in the Fire TV stick has six times the processing power of Roku Streaming Stick. The device also features a dedicated VideoCore4 GPU and 8 GB of storage, "4x that of Chromecast and 32x that of Roku Streaming Stick," notes Amazon.

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Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

Mike

Mod

Grasping at straws

Weren't they a book store at one point?

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

Re: Grasping at straws

They were at one time... and a good one at that.
What a shame.
It's like an online flea market now.
innoman
-
Premium Member
join:2002-05-07
Seattle, WA

innoman

Premium Member

Re: Grasping at straws

Psh, Amazon is freaking awesome! They are trying to be innovative... some stuff works and some doesn't. The Fire TV is actually pretty decent--better than most other options--and the stick looks even better considering the price point. It's everything the Chromecast isn't (though the Chromcast was an awesome addition to the streaming device genre).

They are far from grasping at straws, they're just entering the mobile market a little too late, during a time with stiff competition.

I can order all kinds of stuff and get it delivered the same day I order it... I can even get stuff delivered on Sunday! Not only is that convenient for me, it also puts people to work delivering (sure, there's that whole argument of whether it's right or wrong to make people work Sundays but it's moot here considering that people work in stores on Sundays).
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

bigballer

Member

Re: Grasping at straws

Amazon should stick to their store and their customer service. Although I'm not sure where they're trying to go with their physical store.

Amazon products are meh. Kindle? sure it's nice but it's locked down to hell. no epub support. And their other things are overpriced. 10 dollars for an hdmi cable? why. monoprice beats them at less than half that cost.
innoman
-
Premium Member
join:2002-05-07
Seattle, WA

1 recommendation

innoman

Premium Member

Re: Grasping at straws

I love my Kindle, I know at least 4 or 5 other people who feel the same way. FireTV is a solid product, good price. A 6.5ft Amazon Basics HDMI cable is under $6, I know because I sent one to my mom a few days ago... She got it next day for no additional charge.

Monoprice is awesome, I've used them since about 2004 or 2005. But they aren't always the quickest and their shipping options leave a little to be desired. They started the cheaper cable/tv mount trend it seems and Amazon followed suit.

The Fire tablets are pretty good for someone who doesn't want iPad but also doesn't know a lot about tech, they can help you on-screen. The phone... I'm sure it's a good phone but it came at the wrong time.
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

bigballer

Member

Re: Grasping at straws

I like amazon too,

but their kindle is a big letdown. I would love a kindle paperwhite, but the lack of epub is a huge dealbreaker for me.

Monoprice is where it's at for cables (which sells them on amazon ironically.) their cables are cheap, work, and have lifetime warranty. the audio guys love monoprice.

McShaken
Premium Member
join:2006-02-20
Olympia, WA

1 recommendation

McShaken to bigballer

Premium Member

to bigballer
Amazon has a generic HDMI cable for $2.92 with free shipping. I love Monoprice and shop there when I need to, but your Amazon HDMI price example is a bit misleading.

»www.amazon.com/HDMI-Cabl ··· mi+cable
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

bigballer

Member

Chromecast

How is this better than chromecast (minus amazon video) remote is a hit or miss.
- uses metacast- watch how quick your battery dies
-and no hbo go

beauty of chromecast is the hardware requirements are little. your phone takes care of the grunt work and everything can be upgraded via software. And soon, you can cast movies from google drive.

RRedline
Rated R
Premium Member
join:2002-05-15
USA

RRedline

Premium Member

Re: Chromecast

said by bigballer:

beauty of chromecast is the hardware requirements are little. your phone takes care of the grunt work and everything can be upgraded via software.

This is not true. When you play a video on your Chromecast, the Chromecast itself is doing all the work - not your phone or whatever device you initiated the video from. If you don't believe me, start playing something on your Chromecast, then turn off the device you used to queue it (phone, etc.). The video will continue playing.

This is a very big misconception that a lot of people have about how Chromecast actually works.
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

bigballer

Member

Re: Chromecast

Lack of a true GUI which is what I meant. I'm assuming that a beefier processor and ram is for a gui and for games (kind of pointless if you ask me.) Chromecast is essentially the middle man with no GUI which is the true beauty.

Google now lets you "stream" videos from google drive with a chromebook. Only a matter of time, it gets pushed to everyone else. If it supports mkv, I don't need a HTPC anymore!

lhvetinari
yaW gnorW
join:2008-09-26
Kenosha/Chgo

lhvetinari

Member

Re: Chromecast

I've never understood the MKV format. Why not just use something more compatible? Last time I had to use MKV was with a cheaparse Chinese media player and I had to go on a grand search to find a program to convert mp4 to mkv

RRedline
Rated R
Premium Member
join:2002-05-15
USA

1 recommendation

RRedline

Premium Member

Re: Chromecast

said by lhvetinari:

I've never understood the MKV format. Why not just use something more compatible? Last time I had to use MKV was with a cheaparse Chinese media player and I had to go on a grand search to find a program to convert mp4 to mkv

MKV (Matroska) is not a "format." It is a container. And it is, BY FAR, the best video container available. You can put almost any type of stream in it, including multiples of the same type (alternate audio stream for commentary, etc.). It's also one of the few that can support hi-def audio streams. There is a reason why scene releases went almost entirely to mkv...it's awesome.

If your device doesn't support it, I would suggest getting one that does.
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

bigballer

Member

Re: Chromecast

And here's to hoping chromecast will work with it when it connects to google drive for videos!

Personal home videos of course, not pirated *cough cough* videos at all.
innoman
-
Premium Member
join:2002-05-07
Seattle, WA

innoman

Premium Member

Re: Chromecast

Meh, don't even bother with all that... Just get Plex and watch all your MKV stuff on Chromecast now. I've been doing it that way since Chromecast came out, works well. Plex re-packages anything (or transcodes) that a device can't play natively.
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

bigballer

Member

Re: Chromecast

I prefer the "cloud" makes everything much much easier and doesn't kill my phone battery in the process.
innoman
-
Premium Member
join:2002-05-07
Seattle, WA

innoman

Premium Member

Re: Chromecast

My way doesn't kill my phone battery eiter
devolved
join:2012-07-11
Rapid City, SD

devolved to RRedline

Member

to RRedline
And you don't have to go to China to find a player that plays it. VLC plays MKV files among others.
innoman
-
Premium Member
join:2002-05-07
Seattle, WA

innoman to lhvetinari

Premium Member

to lhvetinari
RRedline is correct, MKV can hold a lot of different stuff--even subtitles. I used the feel the way you did when I was trying to convert stuff to MP4 to watch on my PS3--but then I discovered WD LiveTV, Boxee Box, Google TV (w/Plex), Amazon Fire TV (w/Plex), etc. and everything changed.

Get acquainted with Plex!

RRedline
Rated R
Premium Member
join:2002-05-15
USA

RRedline

Premium Member

Re: Chromecast

said by innoman:

Get acquainted with Plex!

Plex is amazing. It works great with Chromecast, Roku 3, iOS, Android, and others.
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

bigballer

Member

Re: Chromecast

You have to admit, it's mildly more convenient on your phone and your network if you can just upload the video to google drive and fetch it from there on your chromecast.

Similar to google play music in a sense.

RRedline
Rated R
Premium Member
join:2002-05-15
USA

RRedline

Premium Member

Re: Chromecast

No, it really isn't. When I am on the road, I use the Plex app on my iPhone to watch content stored on my Plex server at home. Plus, you have to pay to store files on Google Drive. As expensive as it can get building a large library (hardware costs), it's still cheaper than paying the monthly fee for online storage. You can even share your content with your friends and family.

I can think of only one advantage to doing what you suggest, and that's the possibility that something could cause your Plex server to go down or become inaccessible while away (power outage, router locked up, etc.). Despite that risk, I have never found myself unable to access my Plex server while away.

Plex is one of the best pieces of software that most people don't know about. It WORKS.
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

bigballer

Member

Re: Chromecast

I have a NAS, so if I was ever away from home that wouldn't be too much of a problem

I agree with you that the bottleneck is on google, which only offers 15 gb of drive space. Hopefully they'll up that considering office 365 made it unlimited data.
innoman
-
Premium Member
join:2002-05-07
Seattle, WA

innoman to RRedline

Premium Member

to RRedline
Plex is absolutely one of the best pieces of software out there that people don't know about. Even if you just use it to host your wholely-owned movies and media.
innoman

innoman to bigballer

Premium Member

to bigballer
haha I have to agree with RRedline--uploading it to Google and dealing with that is not at all more convenient for me. I just open the Plex app on my phone or computer or whatever from anywhere and cast it to whatever Chromecast is near me (or any other front end available)--no uploading. Plex Pass subscribers can use Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. to cloudsync if they are working with limited bandwidth. I have 16TB of usable storage on my NAS and it holds plenty more media than Google ever will. There is also the whole aspect of putting a bunch of *potentially* copyrighted material on Google (not that anyone here would do that ).

In general, my whole media setup is automated.. RSS from TVTorrents, scripts that copy/move data, app that renames/sorts it and Plex that scrapes and shares it. If I relied on Google, I'd probably have to manually upload it? I guess I could automate that... But I have terabytes worth of media and google wouldn't be cool with that. Also, I like having the media local as well in case internet goes down.
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

bigballer

Member

Re: Chromecast

I would like if it Google did what they did with google play music, which is phenomenal by the way.

They have a 20,000 song limit (which doesn't count against your 15 gb gmail storage limit) and with a chrome app, it automatically looks at the folder and syncs it to the cloud. Works with chromecast, and tmobile is soon going to unlock google play music in their music freedom soon enough. I have no illegal music on there either

This would only work if Google ups their storage limit. 15 gb per user including drive, isn't cutting it anymore.

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper to bigballer

Premium Member

to bigballer
said by bigballer:

How is this better than chromecast (minus amazon video) remote is a hit or miss....

Comparison of features of firestick, chromecast and roku streaming stick:

»g-ecx.images-amazon.com/ ··· t-v1.jpg

Naturally, Amazon is going to make their stick look better....
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

1 edit

bigballer

Member

Re: Chromecast

Ram? processor? seems pointless as long as it streams 1080p without flaw. The whole point of chromecast is you don't need a remote, you only need your phone so naturally, no GUI. More remotes mean more to lose if you ask me.

only + I see is 5.0 ghz, which even then is iffy since you can connect the chromecast through 2.4 ghz and still control chromecast through your phone connected through 5.0 ghz and netflix only requieres 5-6 mbps for 1080p.

Plus I see an error. Chromecast supports dolby digital plus

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper

Premium Member

Re: Chromecast

said by bigballer:

Ram? processor? seems pointless as long as it streams 1080p without flaw. ...

 
There's an optional game controller, perhaps the additional CPU and memory and flash storage is associated with that?

{shrug}
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

bigballer

Member

Re: Chromecast

What happened to the days of ps4 and xbox one when you wanted to play games on the big screen?

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper

Premium Member

Re: Chromecast

 
You'll have to ask the people who no longer use those boxes to play games on the big screen.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

Re: Chromecast

And this is a few watts to upgrade an older but high quality 1080 display for MAYBE a smoother interface and dual band Wi-Fi.
The lack of HBO is not good, hopefully easy to upgrade given the processor/memory levels.
worth $20 I think.
innoman
-
Premium Member
join:2002-05-07
Seattle, WA

innoman

Premium Member

Re: Chromecast

Dual band makes a HUGE difference! There are times I can't use Chromecast because I have 15+ other visible 2.4Ghz routers around me all sharing the same overlapping channels.

HBO Go will be on Fire TV in December (though might not make it to the stick until early next year)--Amazon verified this today.

rucksack
@71.205.202.x

rucksack to bigballer

Anon

to bigballer
Check out Steam.
innoman
-
Premium Member
join:2002-05-07
Seattle, WA

innoman to bigballer

Premium Member

to bigballer
One of the biggest downfalls is that Chomecast can only be controlled by a phone, tablet or PC--no way to use a remote. There are times when you don't want to (or can't) use your phone to control your TV. I use Chromecast in my bed room and Fire TV in my living room--I can control FireTV with my TV remote over HDMI-CEC so I don't even need to bother with my Fire TV remote. But I don't do it that way, I actually just use my Fire TV remote and rarely mess with the TV remote, Fire TV turns my TV on as soon as I click a button on the remote.

•••••
crk2h
join:2003-03-19
Murfreesboro, TN

crk2h to bigballer

Member

to bigballer
You will be able to use a phone to control the fire stick. You will even have voice command capability.

odreian615
join:2006-01-18
Chicago, IL

odreian615 to bigballer

Member

to bigballer
I'm not giving a child a $50 cheap Android device to use as a remote. Plus you can use your Android device as a voice remote or regular remote with Fire TV stick

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

1 recommendation

n2jtx

Member

Stock

I have hundred or more shares of Amazon that I have taken a bath on. The phone business was so stupid right out of the gate it is almost criminal that they even tried. Plus the AT&T exclusivity was a non-starter for many people including me.

•••••

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

A company in freefall...

Amazon is in big trouble. Really big trouble.

••••••••

ross96
join:2000-11-02
Huntersville, NC

ross96

Member

Fire Phone

Fire phone would have been a dud no matter which carrier.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

Re: Fire Phone

Exactly.
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Wakefield, MA

BosstonesOwn to ross96

Member

to ross96
I'd buy one if they were not att locked...t hn again id want a custom rom and a cheap price.

NJxxxJon
2 0 1 7 Mmm Here We go man!
Premium Member
join:2005-10-22

NJxxxJon

Premium Member

Next person will have a 3 dollar stick

Another major company will come out with a 3 dollar stick/ or better and better......DONT BUY 1st gen! Lol
ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

ISurfTooMuch

Member

For the Fire Phone

For the Fire Phone, if it were unlocked, can it run on T-Mobile's LTE network? If it can, what if Amazon became an MVNO? Sell the phone at cost and turn it into an entirely VoIP device. All calls will be routed over data, either through wi-fi or the cell network. Furthermore, strike deals with as many carriers around the world as possible to make some amount of roaming free to anyone who subs to the calling plan, with voice calls included and any other application considered additional-fee. Naturally, wi-fi would be preferred, and the phone would clearly indicate to the user how it's connected at any time, especially overseas.

Do all this, and it might have a chance.

jtudor
MVM
join:2002-12-07
Morganton, NC

jtudor

MVM

Carrier Exclusivity??

When will these dummies realize that carrier exclusivity is the death knell to any phone nowadays, unless it is something like the iPhone which people were dying to have.
If it is NOT a must have device, people will bypass it unless they are already on that carrier.

And on a side note, just why is it that most exclusive deals wind up on AT&T??
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd

Premium Member

Re: Carrier Exclusivity??

AT&T gives them a pile of cash for one, And two AT&T is GSM which means a phone built for ATT can be SIM'ed to work globally. Verizon when not on LTE is CDMA which is not as popular outside the US and Canada.

And yes the iPhone only worked because it was Apple, Which as we all know has a huge preinstalled fan base and since iPhone was post iPod that fan base was huge. And I think back then iTunes still used DRM so they basically were marketing to people an iPod with a phone built in that could still play their iTunes purchases.*

*Along with all the shit they pirated.

TuxRaiderPen2
Make America Great Again
join:2009-09-19

TuxRaiderPen2

Member

Re: Carrier Exclusivity??

said by Kearnstd:
AT&T gives them a pile of cash for one, And two AT&T is GSM

You blew it with this part.

crApTT is a GSM, UMTS, LTE carrier, and will be UMTS, LTE, and eventually LTE only when VoLTE finally gets haggled out.

GSM is NOT and I REPEAT NOT SYNONYMOUS with UMTS or LTE.

Each is a DISTINCT TECHNOLOGY. Yes it is much easier to go from GSM to UMTS to LTE both RF and backend for the likes of crApTT, tmetro, etc.... and while a "SIM" Is part of GSM, UMTS, LTE it is also in CDMA, its called A R-UIM. The US carriers who are the predominant CDMA users CHOSE NOT TO USE it for the obvious reason.

And UMTS is CDMA W-CDMA to be exact.

Please get your cell tech correct.

GSM != UMTS != LTE
eco
Premium Member
join:2001-11-28
Wilmington, DE

eco

Premium Member

.

Though I'm sure I'll never use it, at $19 for preorders the first 48 hours for Prime members, I ordered one just for the hell of it.

bmetelsky
Premium Member
join:2005-10-16
Elyria, OH

bmetelsky

Premium Member

Re: .

said by eco:

... at $19 for preorders the first 48 hours for Prime members, I ordered one just for the hell of it.

That was my rationale in ordering one today.
grumpy3b
join:2001-12-11
Lompoc, CA

grumpy3b to eco

Member

to eco
my thots 'xactly...can sell it on eBay and get my money back...assuming it can be unlocked from our Amazon account.
mgamer20o0
join:2003-12-01
Norwalk, CA

mgamer20o0

Member

ordered one

i bought one. $20 is well worth it to be able to take plex with me and not have to bother with the fire tv.
AmericanMan
Premium Member
join:2013-12-28
united state

AmericanMan

Premium Member

"Advanced Streaming and Prediction"

You shouldn’t have to wait 10 seconds for a video to buffer every time you press “Play.” ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) for Amazon Instant Video learns what movies and shows you like and gets them ready for you to watch. The more you use Fire TV Stick, the more accurate ASAP becomes, dynamically adapting to your viewing habits.

Amazon's predictive streaming is the biggest beef I have with their Prime Streaming now and why I barely use it. If only they'd just be like Netflix and just let us pick our own darned quality.

Oh well at $19 I picked up one for my aunt who was looking to cut the cord anyway. AFAIK, they've got DSL at around 5 Mbps. But even still, since I'm reading that the ASAP can eat up several dozen GB/day I hope there's a way to turn it off, even for them.

alg
Passionately apathetic
Premium Member
join:2001-04-10
Houston, TX

alg

Premium Member

Picked one up

I went ahead and ordered one as the $20 price is low enough for an impulse buy. Besides, I'm one of the few cord cutters without a dedicated streaming device on my TV and have to use my Blu-ray player that has an annoying habit of not seeing my wireless network and thus only working when it wants to.

Worst case I'll throw it into my travel bag and use it to stream when I'm away from home.

sk1939
Premium Member
join:2010-10-23
Frederick, MD

sk1939

Premium Member

Re: Picked one up

I agree, hard to go wrong for $20.

TuxRaiderPen2
Make America Great Again
join:2009-09-19

TuxRaiderPen2

Member

Crippled like the Fire box for file playback??

I'll guess this thing is as crippled as the Fire box unless you wipe it clean (if possible) and put something on it so it can play back files, MKV from NAS and miniDLNA etc..

NO PLEX won't cut it, I've settled on miniDLNA already and I am not going to add another server to serve the same content or change when every other device but these 2 can handle it.

So the

Fire phone is a dud - custom Droid OS with huge limits ie: NO Google Maps etc.

Fire Box (dud?) - no file playback unless you use some non DLNA server

Fire Stick - Ditto?

"Stream" services are of no use to me.
xistent
join:2001-05-29
Orange, CA

xistent

Member

Re: Crippled like the Fire box for file playback??

I have xmbc running as an app on the fire tv (fire box). It runs really well and allows you to play just about anything from NAS.
xistent

xistent

Member

Biggest missing feature

I think the biggest missing feature from firetv and probably the fire stick to is Vudu. I understand it is a direct competitor to Amazon instant video, but Amazon doesn't seem to usually be afraid to compete by features and quality.