Amazon announced a flurry of new devices on Thursday morning, including several tablets and two new Fire TVs. One of the Fire TVs supports Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa and 4K Ultra HD video streaming, while the Fire TV Gaming Edition includes a number of games, improved graphics, and a new gaming controller.
Here’s everything we know about the two new Fire TVs.
Amazon says its new Fire TV is 75 percent more powerful than last year’s model, with improved Wi-Fi connectivity. The Fire TV supports Amazon’s amazing new voice assistant Alexa, which impressed us with her clairvoyance on the smart home hub Echo. The first-generation Fire TV had decent voice controls, but Alexa should take it to the next level. You can ask her to search for your favorite movies or TV shows, but Alexa can also tell you the weather, update you on other info, and play music on demand.
In keeping with the trend toward 4K content, the new Fire TV can stream 4K Ultra HD video, and as Amazon is fond of pointing out, it costs about half the price of other 4K players. More than 3,000 channels, apps, and games work on the new Fire TV, and thanks to the 128GB of storage you can add via a MicroSD card, you should have more than enough room for all the content you want. The new Fire TV costs $100, and you can preorder it now on Amazon.com. The expected release date is October 5, Amazon says.
There’s also a new Fire TV Stick with its own Voice Remote, for those of you who don’t want to shell out $100 for the Fire TV box. Like its predecessor, the new stick will cost you a mere $50, and you get the Alexa-powered remote with it, which is a pretty great deal. The Fire Stick is also up for preorder on Amazon.com. It’ll take a little longer to ship, though, as Amazon mentions a release date of October 22.
Preorder the Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote now from:
In addition to the more mainstream versions of the Fire TV, Amazon introduced a special Fire TV Gaming Edition for gamers. The pack comes with the new Amazon Fire TV that’s mentioned above, a new game controller, a 32 GB MicroSD card, and two games: Shovel Knight and Disney’s Ducktales. The Gaming Edition will only cost you $140, which isn’t too much more than the standard Fire TV.
You can preorder the Gaming Edition of the Fire TV on Amazon.com, and it’ll be released on October 5.
Preorder the Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition now from:
Amazon boasts that the new game controller’s ergonomic design is ideal for gaming on the faster Fire TV, which boasts two times the GPU performance of last year’s Fire TV. It’s also got a special headphone jack, supports voice controls, and lasts for 90 hours. Among the many games you can play on the Fire TV are popular titles such as, Minecraft Story Mode, Pac Man 256, plus the aforementioned Disney’s Ducktales, and Shovel Knight. The ability to expand storage out to 128GB via a MicroSD card should prove even more useful to gamers.
You can preorder the Gaming Edition of the Fire TV on Amazon.com, and it’ll be released on October 5. If you want to buy the gaming controller separately, it’ll cost $50, and the same goes for the voice remote.
Preorder the all-new Amazon Fire TV Game Controller now from:
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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