Amazon has announced that Fire TV Smart TVs from Toshiba and Insignia are gaining support for Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit. AirPlay will allow iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac owners to cast content from their Apple devices directly onto the TVs. HomeKit support will allow Fire TV Smart TVs to be controlled by Siri. Support is rolling out to 2020 models now and will come to other Fire TV Smart TV models in the future. Read more ›
Amazon appears to have dropped the word “Edition” from a lot of the branding for 3rd-party products running the Fire TV operating system. TVs that were once labeled as “Fire TV Edition” televisions are now simply labeled as “Fire TV” televisions. There are plenty of places that still use the word “Edition,” but it has gone missing from a lot of key areas and is entirely absent in Amazon’s announcement of the latest Fire TV televisions from Toshiba. While this is a small change in the grand scheme of things, it does pull Fire TV devices that are not made by Amazon closer into being equal citizens with Amazon’s own standalone Fire TV devices. Just do your best not to call them “Fire TV TVs.”
Insignia, which is Best Buy’s house brand, has released a new batch of Fire TV Edition televisions as 2021 models. Like their predecessors, these new TVs run Amazon Fire TV operating system by default, which provides all the same features as a standalone Fire TV or Fire TV Stick, but with extra perks, like integrated over-the-air channels via the built-in tuner. Similar to Toshiba’s new 2021 Fire TV Edition models, which change very little over Toshiba’s 2020 models, these new Insignia TVs are very similar to Insignia’s models from last year but change even less than the Toshiba TVs. In fact, Insignia’s new 4K TVs are identical to previous models. Insignia’s biggest changes this year are found in its non-4K TVs which, finally, replace all 720p panels found in past models with 1080p screens across all sizes, even in the smallest 24-inch TVs. Insignia also increasd the screen size of its largest non-4K TV to 42-inches from 39-inches. Read more ›
Amazon has updated Fire TV Edition televisions with a few unique Alexa voice commands. It’s now possible to change the picture mode of the TV using your voice. This lets you quickly switch between Standard, Movie, Game, and other picture modes with a single voice command. Similarly, you can also now change between the various sound modes, like Music mode or Enhanced Bass mode, just as easily through voice commands. For a bit more fine tuning, TV equalizer sound settings can also be changed individually by voice. Read more ›
Toshiba has just released the first set of new Fire TV Edition televisions for 2021 in the US, which they’re calling the C350 Series. Available immediately is a 43-inch 4K TV for $349.99 and a 50-inch 4K TV for $469.99, but coming in the near future will be 55, 65, and 75-inch screen sizes of the same TVs. Aesthetically, these new 2021 TVs are a significant upgrade from the 2020 and older Fire TV Edition televisions by Toshiba, thanks mostly to much thinner bezels along the top and sides. Functionally, these new TVs are mostly identical to last year’s models, apart from more internal storage and a couple of additional ports. Read more ›
The app buttons at the bottom of the newest Fire TV Remote and Fire TV Edition remotes can either be fantastic or useless. They’re great if it’s an app that you use often, but they’re a complete waste if you don’t even have the app that they’re for installed. This guide will show you how to reassign the app buttons to open any app you want. This method uses my Remapper app and works for Netflix, HBO, Hulu, PS Vue, Disney+, CTV, Crave, DAZN, TVNOW, and other buttons. It works on the new remote paired to a Fire TV, Fire TV Cube, and Firestick, as well as Fire TV Edition devices from Element, Toshiba, Insignia, Onida, Grundig, JVC, and more. Read more ›
Croma, a popular electronics retailer that is part of the Tata Group, has just released 5 new Fire TV Edition televisions in India. The new models range in size from 32 inches to 55 inches and include 720p, 1080p, and 4K resoultion sets. The new models start at ₹17,999 (~$248 USD) and top out at ₹46,499 (~$641 USD) for the 55 inch TV with Dolby Vision. Read more ›
Fire TV Edition televisions from Toshiba and Insignia now have a new remote that includes one small but noteworthy change. The HBO app button that used to take up the bottom left-most spot on the remote has been swapped out for an IMDb TV button. An HBO button has been on Amazon’s Fire TV Edition television remotes ever since the 2nd-generation models debuted in 2018. That 3 year run now ends, possibly due to the disagreement between Amazon and HBO that kept HBO Max out of the Amazon Appstore for 6 months. Read more ›
Amazon and Best Buy partnered up a few years ago to sell Fire TV Edition televisions. That partnership is expanding a bit because you can now purchase select Fire TV Edition televisions from Amazon and pick them up in-store at your local Best Buy as quickly as the same day. You can even return those picked-up TVs at Best Buy if you’d like. This arrangement is exclusive to Fire TV Edition TVs and Best Buy specifically, so you can’t pick up other items in-store. Read more ›
Ever since the first Fire TV Edition televisions were released, there have been people wanting to reconfigure the app buttons on the bottom of the remote to launch an app of their choice. Now that there are numerous Fire TV Edition devices with various different remotes in several different countries, all with their own set of app buttons, that desire has continued to grow. Introducing Remapper, a new set of apps that I’ve created to reassign the app buttons on the bottom of Fire TV Edition remotes so that they launch any app that you want. Read more ›
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