Amazon upgrades Fire TV
September 21, 2023
Amazon has announced a range of updates to its Fire TV family, adding enhanced conversational voice search with generative AI, upgrades to the Fire TV Ambient Experience, and what it calls its “most powerful Fire TV Sticks yet” – the all-new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, now with the Fire TV Ambient Experience, and Fire TV Stick 4K. In addition, Amazon announced its all-new Fire TV Soundbar.
“With a world of content at your fingertips, sometimes the hardest thing to do is decide what to watch. Fire TV has always been great at search, but generative AI takes it to a whole new level,” said Tapas Roy, vice president of Fire TV. “We’ve leveraged our new large language model to create a much more natural and conversational way to find content using natural dialogue. Simply ask Alexa nuanced or even open-ended questions about anything from genres and actors, to storylines and scenes, and enter a conversation that will find you something new based on what you like – even if you don’t know what you’re looking for.”
All-New Fire TV Stick 4K Max
The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max is the first streaming media player to come with the Fire TV Ambient Experience, and features an upgraded 2.0 GHz quad-core processor. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max includes support for Wi-Fi 6E, meaning customers with a compatible router can enjoy a smooth streaming experience with lower latency, faster speeds, and less interference from other Wi-Fi-enabled devices in the home.
With ultra-cinematic, vibrant 4K Ultra HD, and support for Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10+, and immersive Dolby Atmos audio, Amazon says the Fire TV Stick 4K Max delivers Fire TV Stick’s best visual and audio experience yet. Fire TV Stick 4K Max also features 16GB of storage, doubling the previous generation’s capacity, and enabling customers to store even more apps and games directly on the device.
Fire TV Ambient Experience
Previously only available on the Fire TV Omni QLED Series, the Fire TV Ambient Experience transforms the TV into an always-smart display, and is now available to more customers on the all-new Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
With a tap of the Alexa button, or simply by asking Alexa, customers can activate the Ambient Experience from the Shortcuts menu and replace blank TV screens with helpful information and various artwork. With the Ambient Experience, customers can see glance-able information like their Calendars and Reminders; leave Sticky Notes for family members; control smart devices like a thermostat or Ring doorbell; play audio from services like Amazon Music, Spotify, and others; and more.
The Ambient Experience can also turn the TV into an in-home art gallery, with no monthly subscription required. Amazon has added hundreds of new images to a growing collection of more than 2,000 free, gallery-quality pieces of artwork, and expanded the collection to include artists from France, Spain, Italy, Japan, and Australia with art from notable institutions including Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Museo del Prado in Madrid, and Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Florence.
Customers can also create artwork using just their voice with AI Art. This free feature, which will begin rolling out to customers in the US by the end of this year, allows customers to easily generate a personalised background by giving Alexa an imagination-driven prompt, such as, “Alexa, create an image of cherry blossoms in the snow,” and watch as that prompt is translated into a unique display on the Fire TV screen. Coming next year, customers will also be able to display a personal photo from Amazon Photos, and even transform the image into a popular art style, like sepia tone or a watercolour painting.
All-New Fire TV Stick 4K
The new Fire TV Stick 4K delivers Fire TV Stick’s best performance yet for under $50 (€46.92). It introduces support for Wi-Fi 6 and features an updated 1.7 GHZ quad-core processor, making it nearly 30 per cent more powerful than the previous generation. Customers can enjoy vibrant 4K Ultra HD picture quality and immersive Dolby Atmos audio with support for Dolby Vision, HDR, HLG, and HDR10+. Plus, with Alexa Home Theater, customers can wirelessly connect compatible Echo devices, for audio across multiple speakers and inputs.
Fire TV Experience Updates
The upgraded Fire TV experience materially enhances search, browse, and recommendations by combining generative AI with Fire TV’s entertainment content and app library – enabling customers to find and discover content in a natural, contextual, and conversational way. Customers will be able to ask Alexa nuanced or open-ended questions about TV shows and movies, helping them find what they’re looking for using natural and conversational language. Customers can ask Alexa to find content based on specific actors, directors, scenes, genres, or entitlements such as “action movies with car chases,” “comedies for a rainy day inside,” or “animated movies that are free to me.” Customers can also simply tell Alexa what they are in the mood to watch, and choose from a selection of recommendations personalised to their Fire TV profiles.
In addition to generative AI in voice search, a new ‘Continue Watching’ row will include content from leading streaming entertainment providers including Amazon Freevee, Disney+, Hulu, Max, MGM+, Peacock, Starz and Tubi. The new row puts recently watched content front and center, with a focus on recency, making it easy for customers to find and stream their favorite content. Fire TV will continue to add content from streaming providers over time. The generative AI-powered voice search and new ‘Continue Watching’ row will roll out to customers in the US later this year.
New Fire TV Device Bundle
US customers who purchase a new Fire TV streaming media player or smart TV on Amazon or in retail stores can enjoy a six-month subscription to MGM+ at no additional charge. With MGM+, customers can watch thousands of movies from MGM and other major Hollywood studios, including Top Gun: Maverick, No Time to Die, House of Gucci, plus original series, including the sci-fi horror hit FROM, Emmy-winning Godfather of Harlem, and the Western adventure Billy the Kid.
All-New Fire TV Soundbar
The new Fire TV Soundbar is a two-channel companion device that brings customers room-filling sound with support for DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Audio. It features a compact 24-inch design, is simple to set up, and is compatible with all Fire TV devices. When not watching TV, customers can connect their phones, tablets, or any streaming device via Bluetooth.
Sustainable Design
The all-new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Fire TV Stick 4K, and Fire TV Soundbar carry the Climate Pledge Friendly badge by achieving the Carbon Trust’s Reducing CO2 certifications. The new Fire TV Sticks indicated their carbon footprints have been reduced year over year and both use more-sustainable materials and implemented a design that reduces their overall lifetime energy consumption; and both feature packaging that is 100 per cent recyclable in the US, made of wood-fiber-based materials from responsibly managed forests or recycled sources. All devices include Low Power Mode, which conserves energy when a device goes to sleep or standby mode due to inactivity. Plus, Amazon’s renewable energy projects will produce the clean energy equivalent to the electricity used by every customer’s Fire TV device by 2025.
Pricing
This Fire TV Stick 4K Max is available for pre-order for $59.99. The all-new Fire TV Stick 4K is available for pre-order for $49.99. The brand-new Fire TV Soundbar is available today for $119.99.