Four years ago today, I started this site on a whim because I thought I could help a few people get a little more out of their new TV gadget. It’s still just me on this end running the site on my own, but there are now millions of you reading what I have to say and using my apps. Thank you so much for your patronage. It allows me to support my family with this site, which, in turn, gives me more time with them than I likely ever would have had otherwise. My older son just turned three a few days ago and his baby brother recently started standing up on his own. I’m looking forward to the years to come. Thank you for being part of the wonderful and supportive community that has formed around this site.

If you’re a regular of AFTVnews, you may notice that there will likely be fewer and shorter posts this week than you may be used to from me. That’s because my wife and I welcomed our second son this morning, so I won’t be able to give the site my usual attention. I’ll try to cover major topics as soon as I can, but please excuse my delay and brevity for the time being. I appreciate your support and understanding.

Apart from the links in the footer of the site, I’ve never posted anything about my social media accounts. I’ve always just let people stumble across them on their own. Since news has been a bit slow this week, I figured now would be a good time to post about the various ways you can keep in touch if you’d like.

Twitter: @AFTVnews is the main account for the site where I post every article I write, for those who want them in their Twitter feed. I’m most responsive on Twitter of all social media accounts, but I’ll usually reply from my personal Twitter account, which is @Elias. I also recently created @AFTVnewsApps where I’ve been posting weird/dumb/strange reviews of my app for those interested in face-palm inducing chuckles.

Facebook: The main account is Facebook.com/AFTVnews which is where I post all articles for those who want AFTVnews in their Facebook news feed. There is also an AFTVnews Community Facebook Group where people are free to discuss anything. Everyone who asks to join is approved and anyone can approve others. I keep my personal Facebook account private, but I do have a public profile at Facebook.com/esaba that I occasionally post on.

Other: Twitter and Facebook are the main ways to keep in touch outside of the site, but there is also an Email List if you want to receive new articles in your inbox. There’s also of course an RSS Feed for those wanting to use an external reader. I’ve also considered adding browser notifications for new posts, so let me know in the comments if that’s something you would use.

I just spent some time redesigning the site’s navigation menu (that gray thing at the top). Please let me know (preferably with screenshots/photos) in the comments if it looks or acts strange on any of your devices.

Once upon a time, I was a laid off software engineer who thought it’d be fun to write about the silly things I was doing with my new TV gadget. Now, 3 years later, there are over half a million of you interested in what I’m writing about. My son just turned 2 last week and his little brother is scheduled to arrive later this year. It means the world to me that all of you make it possible for me to spend so much time with my family while I run this site from home. Thank you so much for enabling me to turn a hobby into a means to support my family.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I won’t be recording an AFTVnewscast podcast episode this week.

I’ve decided not to stream or release an AFTVnewscast podcast episode this week. There isn’t much to discuss this week, apart from a bunch of new apps, and I could really use the extra time to finish some projects I’ve been working on. Plus, it means I can tag along with my son’s class field trip to Travel Town tomorrow. How can I pass that up?!?!

It has been a relatively slow week as far as Fire TV news and topics, so I’m going to skip this week’s AFTVnewscast epsiode so that I can work on some larger projects that I’ve been putting off instead.

I finally got around to updating my Amazon Fire TV & Fire TV Stick Software Update History page. There you can find information on what changes (that we know of) each software version made, as well as links to all of my posts related to each software version. It also tells you which software versions are rootable for each device. For any modders out there interested in making a custom ROM for the Fire TV, I’ve also included links to all the stock software images that I’ve managed to capture. Note that the page includes options at the top that allow you to hide information you’re not interested in so it’s easier to skim, and your view options are saved in the page’s URL for bookmarking purposes. I have not included Fire OS 3 update information yet, but I’ll do that soon. You can get to the page by using the menu bar, or by remembering the short URL AFTVnews.com/updates or AFTVnews.com/software.

Two years ago today, I started this website (well…not exactly this domain) on a whim due to the lack of organized information available for the Amazon Fire TV. Now, over 1,800 posts later, there are hundreds of thousands of you visiting my little website. Thank you so much for enabling me to turn a hobby into a means to support my family.