Amazon has launched a new app called IMDb What to Watch to help you find new movies and TV shows to watch. It does this through three different game-like interaction methods to make flipping through recommendations a bit more fun than the usual endless lists that you usually scroll through when trying to figure out what to watch. Read more ›
Amazon has started to add specific websites to the Universal Search results on Fire TV devices. Searching for a URL, either by voice search or using the onscreen keyboard search, will now display a new search result format for select websites that will load the website directly through Amazon’s Silk web browser. Read more ›
Amazon has announced that the Fire TV Cube is the first streaming device in the U.S. to support Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA). Those with compatible Bluetooth hearing aids from Starkey can use a new “Hearing Aids” menu found under the Accessibility menu in Settings to connect the hearing aid to the Fire TV Cube. Once connected, you can use the volume buttons on the Fire TV remote to adjust the volume of the hearing aid. While the hearing aids are connected, you can hold the Home button to see a new “Disconnect Hearing Aids” option to easily disconnect. Amazon says it will expand support to more Fire TV models later this year.
A new software update is currently rolling out to Fire TV Sticks, Fire TV Cubes, and Fire TV Smart TVs that changes the main navigation menu on the Fire TV home screen. Gone are the text navigation menu items, like “Home” and “Find,” that have been part of the Fire TV interface since the beginning. In their place are new icons without any text. However, the change isn’t simply a cosmetic update as the new icons come with revamped screens to go along with them. Read more ›
Plex has announced the addition of a couple of new features to its streaming app that turn it into a streaming aggregator, like Reelgood and JustWatch, to help organize and search your various streaming services. The first is a Universal Search feature that can find movies and TV shows across numerous streaming services and either launch the content directly in th streaming service’s app or allow you to add it to a universal watchlist within Plex. The second is a Discover section of the app that will help surface popular and trending content from within your other streaming services. Read more ›
The Remote Plus V2 by Third Reality is a new gadget that attaches to your Fire TV remote to add several handy capabilities. If you lose your remote a lot, the Remote Plus V2 has a built-in speaker that will beep when you say “Alexa, find my remote” to an Echo device. The gadget also has a headphone jack that allows you to use wired headphones to listen to your Fire TV’s audio. Lastly, there is an LED, which is pointed up at the Fire TV remote buttons, that can make using the remote in a dark room easier. Read more ›
Enabling Parental Controls on a Fire TV, Fire TV Cube, Fire TV Stick, or Fire TV Smart TV requires you to enter a PIN code to unlock the device before many actions can be performed. One of the locked-out actions is the ability to factory reset the device. However, if you’ve forgotten your PIN code or you’ve purchased a used Fire TV that has parental controls enabled, there is a way to bypass the need to enter a PIN in order to factory reset the device to its default settings. Here’s how to do it. Read more ›
Android TV 12 is still not out and slated to be released “later this year,” but information about possible Android TV 13 features are starting to emerge, thanks to a deep dive of Android 13 changes by Esper (via AndroidPolice.) It appears as though Android TV 13 is expanding on how the platform handles multiple video streams with the removal of Picture-in-Picture (PiP) video aspect ratio limitations and new positiioning controls. There are also new options for docking PiP video for side-by-side viewing in a Split-Screen orientation. Read more ›
The 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick and the Fire TV Stick Lite have been rooted. XDA forum user k4y0z has posted instructions for how to root either device, which currently requires the Firestick be on Fire OS version 7.2.7.3 or older. They’ve also provided a build of TWRP custom recovery to allow for the installation of custom ROMs. XDA forum user Rortiz2 has already created a custom ROM for the latest Fire TV Sticks based on LineageOS and Android 11. Read more ›
Amazon has sent out emails informing Fire TV users that certain customizations made to their devices will be reset to default settings in the next few days. Right now, this reset appears to only affect the app order in the navigation bar on the Fire TV home screen. Amazon has told me that this forced reset only affects Fire TVs in the UK, but it’s unclear if it is all Fire TVs or just some Fire TVs in that region. To make up for the inconvenience of having to rearrange your Fire TV apps, Amazon is giving all users affected by the reset a £5 Prime Video credit to use on video purchases or rentals. If you find that your Fire TV app order has been reset, you should be able to simply re-customize the order immediately without any issues.
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