Amazon's Fire TV Cube kills two birds with one stone

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: Amazon's long-rumored Fire TV Cube marries two established product lines into a cube-shaped form factor. It's a logical "next step" for Alexa, both for those that are new to the voice assistant and consumers that may already have an Echo in another part of their home.

Amazon on Thursday officially took the wraps off the Amazon Fire TV Cube, a 4K-enabled streaming media player with integrated Alexa smarts.

It’s more than just a run-of-the-mill set-top box. Thanks to its multi-directional infrared blaster, the Fire TV Cube can control your other home theater gear like your TV, sound bar, A/V receiver or cable / satellite box. When you get home, for example, a simple verbal command like “Alexa, watch TV” can power on your gear and even turn the room lights on.

Alexa can also control the experience once you’ve settled in so there’s no need to reach for the remote. Just say, “Alexa, tune to CBS” or “Alexa, launch Netflix” and you’re off to the races.

Technically speaking, the Fire TV Cube is powered by a quad-core processor (four Cortex-A53 cores) clocked at “up to 1.5GHz,” Mali-450 MP3 graphics and 2GB of RAM alongside 16GB of internal storage. Its dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi supports 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac standards.

Amazon’s Fire TV Cube is available to pre-order for $119.99. Prime members that order today or tomorrow can take advantage of a special introductory offer and grab the gadget for just $89.99 – a savings of $30. Plus, if you register the device by July 1, you’ll be eligible for a $10 credit for Prime Video. Look for it to ship on June 21.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/74974-amazon-fire-tv-cube-kills-two-birds-one.html

 

[Evernessince]

Everything is great about this except the high-powered always on microphone always listening to everyone in the house.

 

[Catweazle]

"Alexa can also control the experience once you’ve settled in so there’s no need to reach for the remote."

First we became too lazy to walk over to the TV. Now we're becoming too lazy to move our arms.

 

[TheBigT42]

Nope, Nope, Nope

 

[Drew Valadez]

"Alexa can also control the experience once you’ve settled in so there’s no need to reach for the remote."

First we became too lazy to walk over to the TV. Now we're becoming too lazy to move our arms.

Man, can this thing just predict what mood I am in and have Alexa order me delivery, have my door unlock through Amazon Key for the delivery, then have Alexa turn on a movie with my Prime then order me a Snuggie and delivered with Amazon Now?

That's when the good life will happen.

 

[FliGuyRyan]

I will resist until they absolutely force me to "bug" my own home using my own money.

The general populous are dumber than I could've possibly fathomed...

The surveillance community doesn't even have to hide it any more. They're like, "'ef it, we'll just package it into a device that you can talk to, and they won't ever realize that it listens better than most real people do."

 

[Xanderton]

I will resist until they absolutely force me to "bug" my own home using my own money.

The general populous are dumber than I could've possibly fathomed...

The surveillance community doesn't even have to hide it any more. They're like, "'ef it, we'll just package it into a device that you can talk to, and they won't ever realize that it listens better than most real people do."

I swear YOU PEOPLE! I sure hope you don't have a smart phone. I hope you have no phone for that matter. Oh, Wait.....Your on the internet... you are being tracked now.... hurry, go hide under a rock..... Great, your safe! Now stay there until you die! Great, Your dead and nobody ever tracked you and your boring life... ! Good job! In the mean time. We have flying cars that can take us back to the future...We have phones that let us communicate with people all over the world without having to even know who they are. Technology is amazing. Amazon refuses to turn over any recordings that their devices make without permission from the owner. They have already been fined $100K for refusing and defying court order when the person was killed and the Alexa device recorded the killers voice... but I'm sure your okay with the turning over the voice copies then too, huh! I love my Alexa, I love the services it provides and since I'm not a terrorist and I do what the law says... who cares if somebody wants to listen to me. Who CARES! NOT ME....! You want to hear me take a shower and sing like a crazy man, GREAT! ENJOY!