Amazon Fire TV

Amazon Fire TV

Amazon Fire TV with remote
Developer Amazon.com
Manufacturer Amazon.com
Type Digital media player, microconsole
Release date
  • USA April 12, 2014
  • DE September 25, 2014[1]
  • UK October 23, 2014[1]
  • JP October 28, 2015[2]
Introductory price US$99[3]
Operating system Fire OS 3.0 "Mojito"[4]
System-on-chip used Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T[5]
CPU Qualcomm Krait 300, quad-core to 1.7 Ghz[5]
Memory 2 GB LPDDR2 RAM[5]
Storage 8 GB internal[5]
Display 1080p[5]
Graphics Qualcomm Adreno 320[5]
Sound Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound[5]
Connectivity HDMI, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), 10/100 Ethernet, Optical audio, Fire game controller[5]
Power 5.5 mm DC[5] (6.25 V 2.5 A power adapter[6])
Dimensions 115 × 115 × 17.5 mm (4.53 × 4.53 × 0.69 in)[5]
Weight 281 g (9.9 oz)[5]
Related articles Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Ouya
Website Amazon Fire TV

Amazon Fire TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed by Amazon.com.[7][8] It is a small network appliance and entertainment device designed to stream digital audio/video content to a high-definition television. The device also allows users to play video games with the included remote, via a mobile app, or with an optional game controller. The device features 2 GB of RAM, MIMO dual-band Wi-Fi, and a Bluetooth remote control with a microphone for voice search. It supports 1080p streaming and Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound but is dependent on internet bandwidth of the user. Unveiled on April 2, 2014, the Amazon Fire TV was made available for purchase in the US the same day for US$99 and was launched with a video game called Sev Zero.[3] Amazon Fire TV is also available in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan.

Design

The developmental code name of the Fire TV was Bueller, named after the eponymous character from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.[9]

Hardware

The Fire TV offers HDMI and optical audio, with support for Dolby Digital Plus and 7.1 surround sound pass-through, along with an Ethernet port and a USB 2.0 port. According to Amazon, the Fire TV is designed to outpace competitors like the Apple TV and Roku in performance: The 0.7-inch-thick box features a 1.7 GHz quad-core CPU, 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage, along with a dual-band wireless radio for 1080p streaming over 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. The Fire TV now supports 4K Ultra High Definition streaming quality when used with compatible 4K Ultra HD TVs.[10] The company said that it does not intend the Fire TV to compete with gaming consoles; instead, its gaming capabilities are geared toward people who don't already own a console but may play games on a smartphone or tablet. It has a dedicated controller accessory.[4]

Fire TV Stick

On November 19, 2014, Amazon released a smaller version of the Fire TV called the Fire TV Stick. It is a HDMI-port plug-in device that replicates much of the functionality of the larger Fire TV.[11] Its hardware is slightly different, it has 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, weighs 0.9 oz. (25.1g) and it uses a BCM28145 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 processor[12] The Fire TV Stick is bundled with a TV remote, a model with voice search on the remote and one without.

Software

The device initially ran Fire OS 3.0, based on Android Jelly Bean 4.2. According to Amazon, that made it "simple for developers to port their services and games over to Fire TV."[4]

Updates

On March 24, 2015, Amazon announced an update to the Fire TV software to provide the following additional features which address some of the concerns raised in early reviews:[13]

Reception

Dan Seifert from The Verge reviewed Fire TV on April 4, 2014, giving it an 8.8/10 and largely praising its current functionality and future potential.[14] Dave Smith from ReadWrite wrote: "Fire TV aims to be the cure for what ails TV set-top boxes."[15] GeekWire editor Andy Liu's review is headlined "Amazon's Fire TV sets a new bar for streaming boxes."[16] Ars Technica praised the device specs that are better than the competition, the build quality was high, and if you use Amazon content, the microphone works very well. However, the reviewer did not like that media browsing puts Amazon content in the front thus making other apps less convenient, the game selection is limited and many games are unoptimized, and its free space is only 5.16GB, limiting the amount of games that can be installed.[17]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Amazon Fire TV now available for pre-order in the UK and Germany".
  2. ↑ "Amazon Fire TV & Fire TV Stick Coming to Japan".
  3. 1 2 Horn, Leslie (April 2, 2014). "Fire TV: Everything You Need to Know About Amazon's $100 Streaming Box". Gizmodo. Gawker Media. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 "Amazon unveils $99 Fire TV, set-top box for games and streaming video". Polygon.com. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Amazon Fire TV –Streaming Media Player –Shop Now". Amazon.com. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  6. ↑ https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/customerdocumentation/Amazon_Fire_TV_User_Guide.pdf
  7. ↑ Solomon, Kate. "Amazon Fire TV is Amazon's powerful new streaming box". Techradar.com. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  8. ↑ Tam, Donna. "Amazon unveils Amazon Fire TV for streaming video". CNET. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Amazon's Fire TV Piles Into the Living Room". Businessweek. 2014-04-02. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  10. ↑ "Amazon Fire TV". Amazon.com. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  11. ↑ "How Amazon's Fire TV Stick Compares to Other Streaming Dongles - WIRED". WIRED.
  12. ↑ Fire TV Stick - Official Site. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  13. ↑ "Amazon Announces New Features for Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick". Amazon. 2015-03-24. Retrieved 2015-05-27.
  14. ↑ Seifert, Dan (2014-04-04). "Amazon Fire TV review". The Verge. Retrieved 2014-04-21.
  15. ↑ "Review: The Amazon Fire TV Is Kind Of A Mess – ReadWrite".
  16. ↑ Liu, Andy. "Review: Amazon's Fire TV sets a new bar for streaming boxes". GeekWire. Retrieved 2014-04-21.
  17. ↑ Amazon Fire TV misses the same marks as Ouya, other media boxes. Ars Technica. Retrieved 1 July 2014.

External links

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