Late last year a report came out that Amazon would ditch Android for its own operating system, and if that report wasn’t enough, a job listing is making it pretty clear what’s going on.
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At CES 2024 Amazon is introducing “Matter Casting,” a new standard for casting content from apps on your phone to Amazon Fire TV and Amazon smart displays, similar to Google’s Chromecast and Apple’s AirPlay.
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Almost every smart TV platform is, at this point, a billboard for ads with your apps sprinkled in, but where the line is drawn for many is automatically playing videos. Now, Amazon Fire TV is showing fullscreen video ads to users, and there’s no way to avoid it.
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Amazon has been using “forked” versions of Android to power its products for years now, but the company is apparently planning to swap that out with a new web-forward “Vega” OS starting with new Fire TV devices.
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Amazon is reportedly working with partners on a new Fire TV feature that will show content you’ve been watching in a dedicated homescreen row, much like Google TV.
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Amazon appears to be imposing a ban on apps that allow users to remap the buttons on Fire TV remotes, and it’s not the first time the company has made this move.
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As content keeps moving around between various streaming services, Google TV has turned out to be a lifeboat of sorts in making it easy to figure out what content is available on which service. Some third-party apps have since found ways to replicate that, but Amazon is blocking that “guide” functionality on its Fire TV platform.
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As it continues to face intense scrutiny for its practices with Android partners, Google has just struck a new deal with Amazon that will allow Android partners to produce Amazon Fire TVs.
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When YouTube TV brought surround sound to Google/Android TV and Roku earlier this month, Google said it was working to expand availability, and 5.1 audio is now available on some Amazon Fire TV devices.
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Today Xiaomi announced its very first set of Amazon Fire TV smart TVs, with a trio of options hitting the market. It’s now the second Google partner for Android TV OS to adopt the Fire TV platform in under a month.
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Google’s Android TV has long been competing for its place in the market, and in the United States it primarily goes against Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV. Most Android TV and Google TV partners also sell Roku models, but they’ve never mixed in with Fire TV. That changes now, as Hisense has launched its first Amazon Fire TV model.
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Amazon’s Fire TV platform is built on top of Android, just like the company’s tablets – this adds a lot of flexibility to the platform, but with its latest update, Amazon seems to be going out of its way to block Android launchers on Fire TV.
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YouTube has essentially the same app across TV platforms, and over the past week it’s been rolling out a revamped video interface to some platforms. Here’s a quick look at the new YouTube UI rolling out on Android TV, Fire TV, and probably other platforms.
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YouTube Kids is an easy way to get some peace of mind while letting your child watch content online, and now the app is officially arriving on one of the biggest streaming platforms. YouTube Kids is now on Amazon Fire TV.
Millions of people are cutting off traditional cable in favor of streaming, and live TV offerings are an important piece of that puzzle. To bolster its live TV discovery features on Fire TV, Amazon has just announced new integrations with Google’s YouTube TV and Sling.
If you’re primarily a Chromecast and Android TV user like myself, but still want to get your fix on some Apple TV+ shows, you may have hit a snag. While Apple TV (hardware) owners and people with AirPlay-compatible TVs will have no problem popping up Apple TV+ shows or casting them, not all of us are as lucky. Here’s how to watch Apple TV+ on Chromecast and Android TV devices.
After our deluge of Pixel 4 leaks, things slowed down a bit today with another Pixel 4 software leak, renders of the OnePlus 8, and a report on a new speed test feature coming to the Nest Hub. Alongside that, however, we’ve got new details on a “Glow” skin for Fortnite on Samsung devices and more.
Google’s live TV streaming service, YouTube TV, has become a favorite among cord cutters despite its increasing prices. Today, YouTube TV is officially arriving on Amazon’s Fire TV streaming sticks and boxes.
After finally settling their differences last month, Google and Amazon are putting apps on each other’s platforms. This week, Amazon has confirmed that the new official YouTube app for Fire TV devices has fully rolled out to all hardware including the original Fire TV Stick.
A few months back, Google and Amazon made the exciting announcement that their feud would be ending and that they would offer video services on each other’s streaming platforms. Apparently, those apps are arriving today, with YouTube for Fire TV making its return, along with Chromecast and Android TV compatibility for Amazon Prime Video.
Here’s a shocker. Google and Amazon are settling their feud and officially making a move that’s awesome for consumers. Amazon Prime Video is coming to Chromecast and Android TV.
Getting media to your TV has never been as easy as it is today. For years now, we’ve had options with Google’s Chromecast, Roku, Amazon’s Fire TV and more. At this point, it’s really coming down to who can get the most attention from consumers. Now, Amazon is teasing an upcoming product that may do just that…
Update: A few minutes after publishing, YouTube’s optimized experience has returned to the Fire TV.
The Google and Amazon dispute has reached its latest salvo with YouTube’s TV-optimized web version now blocked on the Fire TV. Users of the competing Amazon product can still access the video site, but only through an unintuitive desktop experience.
With Amazon announcing that it would begin selling Chromecasts, it seemed that the retailer and Google were finally de-escalating long-running tensions. However, it seems that a deal hasn’t been reached in time as Amazon is telegraphing the impending 2018 block of YouTube to all Fire TV users.