Amazon Fire TV

Meta has today announced that Instagram is getting a TV app designed to let you watch Reels on the big screen, but it’s only on Amazon’s Fire TV platform to start.

As previously reported, Amazon is now more aggressively blocking apps on Fire TV with a focus on apps that enable piracy.

Amazon’s Alexa+ is starting to roll out some of its more advanced features, including a new option on Fire TV that lets you skip straight to a specific movie scene with just a voice command and a brief description.

Amazon has confirmed that it’s not giving up on Android for its Fire TV lineup just yet, implying that its new Vega OS might focus mainly on low-end or low-power devices.

Amazon has confirmed that Fire TV devices will now block apps that are known to be used for piracy, even if you sideloaded them on the company’s Android-based streamers.

Amazon’s replacement of Android on the Fire TV platform is underway and, well, customers aren’t very happy about it. Amid backlash over the removal of sideloading on new Fire TV Stick, Amazon has been caught censoring reviews, and also had to rebrand one of its other devices to prevent confusion.

Earlier this week, Amazon held its annual fall hardware event, unveiling its next-gen lineup of smart speakers, smart displays, and streaming devices. Alongside the launch of a new $40 Fire TV Stick Select, the company took this opportunity to finally unveil Vega OS, a long-in-the-works move away from its Android-based Fire OS platform. If you’ve been wondering how Amazon managed to score deals with every major platform publisher for streaming apps, however, the company’s solution might make you raise an eyebrow.

After years of rumors and reports, Amazon has officially announced Vega OS, its replacement for Android on Fire TV hardware, and it’s going to make some big changes.

It’s finally time. After years of rumors, reports, and plenty of evidence, Amazon is reportedly gearing up to announce “Vega OS” as its replacement for Android on Fire TV next week.

It’s been expected for a while now, but according to a new report, Amazon is set to do away with the Android foundation for its Fire TV streaming devices, with the replacement launching later this year.

It was reported that Amazon would be shifting its Fire TV lineup away from an Android base, but it seems that’s at least being put off for a while longer as the company has hinted at a new Android 14-based build.

Voice search is a key aspect of any smart TV platform, but how capable it is varies wildly from platform to platform. This week, Amazon has announced that it will use AI to enhance Fire TV voice search, but all of the examples are things that Google TV can already do.

Late last year a report came out that Amazon would ditch Android for its own operating system, and if that report wasn’t enough, a job listing is making it pretty clear what’s going on.

At CES 2024 Amazon is introducing “Matter Casting,” a new standard for casting content from apps on your phone to Amazon Fire TV and Amazon smart displays, similar to Google’s Chromecast and Apple’s AirPlay.

Amazon has been using “forked” versions of Android to power its products for years now, but the company is apparently planning to swap that out with a new web-forward “Vega” OS starting with new Fire TV devices.