Starting today and over the coming weeks, Amazon will be rolling out a free over-the-air software update to Fire TV customers. It includes Alexa support for first-generation Fire TV and Fire TV Stick devices.
It also includes improvements to Amazon’s Video add-on subscription service, including an easier way for users to sign-up, discover, and access your Amazon Video add-on subscriptions.
There’s also new Bluetooth headphone support for Fire TV Stick devices for private listening.
“Since the launch of the new Fire TV in September, we’ve added dozens of Alexa skills to Fire TV devices including local search (i.e. the ability to find restaurants in your neighborhood), Amazon Choice and Re-Ordering from Amazon.com (i.e. quickly purchasing items off Amazon.com), home automation (i.e. turning on the living room lights via Alexa), traffic (i.e. find out how your commute to work is looking), Audible, games like Jeopardy!, Bingo, and more,” an Amazon spokesperson tells us in an email.
“Amazon Fire TV remains #1 best-selling streaming media player in the U.S. across all retailers, and is a great way to watch your favorite TV shows and movies on the big-screen from apps like Amazon Video, Showtime, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, HBO Now and more,” the spokesperson adds.
It’s worth noting that Amazon recently stopped selling competing devices like Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast. In fact they even put their own devices right at the top of search results for these competitors.
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