The MrMC app has just been updated to version 3.0.9 and with it comes a great new feature for those of you with multiple Amazon Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks or those of you who frequently factory reset your device. The app now supports linking up with Trakt.tv to keep track of what you’ve watched in a centralized place. This lets you back up and/or restore your watched history when necessary, or set it to happen automatically whenever you scan your library for new content. Read more ›
The Hulu app for the Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, and Fire TV Edition televisions has just been updated with an all new interface. More importantly, Hulu’s live TV service is now available on all Fire TV devices. The TV service is similar to other online cable services like Sling TV, DirecTV Now, and PlayStation Vue. For $39.99 per month, you get access to over 50 live channels and Hulu’s streaming library. Channels vary by city, but it does include local channels in most major metropolitan areas. The service allows for 2 simultaneous streams and a 50 hour cloud DVR.
Amazon added Alexa to the iPhone earlier this year and now it’s Android’s turn. A formal announcement has not been made yet, but TechCrunch says that Amazon has “confirmed the integration is indeed rolling out this week.” Just as it was added to the iPhone, Alexa will be added to the Amazon shopping app as a replacement to the app’s voice search feature. Read more ›
I have been meaning to revamp my main rooting starters guide that walks you through the steps of rooting all the different software versions of the different Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick models. Since I needed to update it anyway with the new rooting information for the Fire TV Edition televisions, I spent a couple of days redoing the whole thing. The new rooting guide is at AFTVnews.com/root and covers every known rooting method for each device’s software version. Read more ›
Fling is Amazon’s forgotten answer to Google’s Cast protocol used by the Chromecast. It allows apps to send video and other content from a mobile device to the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. My buddy Jared Newman just published a good article about Amazon Fling that you should read, where he examines the current state of the service and talks to streaming companies, like Plex, CBS, and Pluto TV, and asks them why they don’t support Amazon Fling. The consensus seems to be that they either see no point in supporting Fling when they already have a native Fire TV app, or that they just aren’t aware of Amazon Fling. Read more ›
It has become almost certain that every device running some form of Android will at some point be rootable. In the case of the Element Fire TV Edition televisions, it happened quicker than you’d expect because, as it turns out, the software version that the TVs ship with from the factory is rootable. It’s always great to have the option to root a device, but before you jump at the opportunity to root your Fire TV Edition television, you need to know that the release of custom recovery, like TWRP, and pre-rooted ROMs from rbox for these TVs is very unlikely. Even more important is understanding how that’ll affect the TV in the future if you do root it. Read more ›
This week there were 40 new apps and games released for the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. Heartland Media has released several new local news apps this week. Take a look to see if your local channel is among the ones included. Stretch has released several apps for small sports organizations that you might want to browse through. ClickSimply Kiosk is a new utility app that gives you a dead simple way to display any website on a Fire TV to use as a digital sign, and TVQue is an app that lets you send photos and videos to the Fire TV to be displayed in a queue. Continue on for the full list of new apps and games released in the last 7 days. Read more ›
A reader of AFTVnews named Brandon Hammer has sent me a video showing that his Element Fire TV Edition television is rooted. Brandon says he was able to successfully root the device using the latest version of the KingRoot rooting utility, which is currently version 5.2.0. Brandon’s TV is running software version 5.2.5.0, which is not the latest software version for the Fire TV Edition televisions. Read more ›
A new software version has started rolling out to the Amazon Fire TV Stick 2. It seems it’s only being deployed to that specific device. The new update carries version number 5.2.4.2 (574263220). That’s one digit different from the 5.2.4.2 (574263120) that rolled out to only the Fire TV 2 last month. So now, if you count the Fire TV Edition televisions, there are 4 different latest software versions across Fire TV devices. The 1st-gen Fire TV and Fire TV Stick are on the same 5.2.4.1 software, the Fire TV 2 and Fire TV Stick 2 each have a unique version of the 5.2.4.2 software, and the Fire TV Edition televisions are running 5.2.5.1 software. Read more ›
Amazon is currently having a Summer Digital Deals Sale where various apps, movies, tv shows, digital music, PC software, PC games, eBooks, and magazines are discounted through the weekend. Of the 41 apps which currently have some kind of discount, 8 are Fire TV apps. All of the Fire TV app discounts are on in-app items, like UFC and Plex subscription discounts. Read on for the details on all of the Fire TV in-app deals. Read more ›
