Amazon is giving its Prime Video app a full redesign. A newly overhauled app is starting to roll out now to Fire TV devices, as well as other streaming platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, and game consoles. The new design closely resembles other streaming apps, such as Netflix, with the navigation menu changed from being a horizontal menu across the top, so a slim vertical menu across the left side. Read more ›
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 ›
The full-fledged TikTok app is now available for Fire TV owners in the US and Canada. The app was first released in the UK, France, and Germany earlier this year but now it has come overseas. A very underwhelming app called More on TikTok was widely released last year, but it offered nothing more than a series of compilation videos that highlighted TikTok content. This newer is the TikTok app you expect, with full access to “For You” and “Following” feeds, a Discovery page, and more. The app is compatible with all Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Cube, and Fire TV Smart TV models.
Zoom has just launched its first Fire TV App for video calls through your TV. The app is currently only compatible with the 2nd-gen Fire TV Cube. That’s because Amazon added USB webcam support last year to the current Fire TV Cube but has not yet extended that support to any other Fire TV models. The zoom app for Fire TV allows you to start meetings, join meetings, see screen sharing, and other Zoom capabilities that you’d expect. Read more ›
Verizon has launched its Fios TV app for Fire TVs and Firesticks. The app provides Verizon customers subscribed to Fios TV access to live channels, a program guide, on-demand content, DVR recordings, purchases, rentals, and more. This is the first time Verizon is making its app available on devices other than phones and tablets. Unfortunately, the app is only compatible with devices running Fire OS 6 and 7. That means customers with 2nd-gen Fire TV Sticks, which make up the majority of Fire TV devices in the wild, do not have access to the app. Only Fire TV models released in or after 2017 and Fire TV Smart TVs released in or after 2018 are compatible.
Sling TV, the streaming television service with plans that start at $35 month for 30+ channels, has launched an entirely new app interface that has come first to Fire TV devices. While Sling TV’s old app interface could be commended for taking a unique approach to streaming TV, it certainly took some getting used to. The new interface has greatly simplified things and is more aligned with what most people tend to expect in a streaming app. Here is an overview of the new interface. Read more ›
RetroArch, the very popular front-end app for emulators, is now available in the Amazon Appstore for all Fire TV devices, including Firesticks, Fire TV Cubes, and Fire TV Smart TVs, as spotted by Liliputing and XDA. RetroArch is not an emulator on its own, but it allows you to install numerous game engines, called cores, that can then emulate consoles such as NES, SNES, PlayStation, GameCube, Wii, and much more. While there are many standalone emulators that can be sideloaded, the benefit of RetroArch is that it provides a unified interface for all emulators in order to simplify the process of setting up and using multiple emulators.
TikTok has released an official full-featured Fire TV app in the UK, France, and Germany. This is the same app that was released to Andoird TV earlier this year. Unfortunately, the app is not yet available in the US and other regions, but you can sideload the app using this guide and the entering
I’m excited to announce the release of my newest Fire TV apps, which I’m calling Loader Shortcut Apps. While these new apps are very simple in their functionality, they will hopefully help Fire TV owners save a lot of time in the long run by helping you access frequently visited areas of the Fire TV more quickly and easily. When a Loader app is launched, it will immediately take you directly to a specific part of the Fire TV. For example, if you’re a heavy user of the Fire TV’s watchlist, then the Watchlist Loader is for you. If you’re always pairing and unpairing Bluetooth headphones, then the Bluetooth Devices Loader will save you countless clicks. If you constantly force quit apps or clear app data/cache, then the Manage Installed Applications Loader takes you directly to your list of installed apps. The list goes on and on as there are 35 different Loader Shortcut Apps in this initial release, so you’ll hopefully find at least one that is useful to you. Read more ›
The Peacock app for Fire TV devices is now available in the Amazon Appstore. NBCUniversal and Amazon said the app would “be compatible with the entire Fire TV product line-up” but that is unfortunately not the case. The app is not currently compatible with the 1st-gen Fire TV or the 1st-gen Fire TV Stick. I haven’t tried it myself yet, but if you would like to try sideloading the official Fire TV version on those devices, you can enter
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