Speaker 1: A new fireTV that controls your cable box.
Speaker 2: What's going on, I'm Rich Demiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech Daily. Amazon just unveil the
Speaker 1: fireTV Cube. This is a brand new four K device
Speaker 1: that pretty much combines the best of Echo, Alexa and
Speaker 1: the fireTV Plus. It adds new voice control features that
Speaker 1: lets you control your TV soundbars and even cable boxes.
Speaker 1: That means it can help you turn on the TV,
Speaker 1: watch a show, raise the volume, and even tune in
Speaker 1: a regular old TV channel just by asking. So taking
Speaker 1: a look at the fireTV Cube, it's a black box
Speaker 1: with just four controls on the top. If you take
Speaker 1: a look at the back, you've got a USB port,
Speaker 1: an infrared por so, an IR blaster, an HDMI por
Speaker 1: and then power. So it's a very simple device. It
Speaker 1: has Alexa built in. It has all the apps that
Speaker 1: you know and love like Prime Video, Hulu, ESPN, Fox Now, Showtime, Stars,
Speaker 1: PlayStation and View, CBS All Access and NBC.
Speaker 2: But here's the deal.
Speaker 1: You can use your voice to control a lot of
Speaker 1: the things that you would normally do with your remote control.
Speaker 1: So Amazon used the launch of this Firetvcube to say
Speaker 1: that you can now use your voice to control Netflix.
Speaker 1: So now you can say something like Alexa, play Stranger
Speaker 1: Things on Netflix, and your TV will come to life
Speaker 1: and start playing the show.
Speaker 2: Now, I haven't tested the fireTV Cube.
Speaker 1: Just yet, so I can't say how easy this all
Speaker 1: is to set up or how effective it is, but
Speaker 1: I can tell you that I do have a similar
Speaker 1: feature available with my Chrome Cast four K, which is
Speaker 1: connected to my TV and also connected to my Google Home.
Speaker 1: I have said things like, Hey, Google, play Inspector Gadget
Speaker 1: on Netflix, and it literally will turn on my TV
Speaker 1: and start playing Inspector Gadget for my kids right where
Speaker 1: it left off the last time. Now, one thing to
Speaker 1: keep in mind. With my Chrome Cast, I can search
Speaker 1: for a YouTube video pretty easily, but with Amazon YouTube
Speaker 1: is not supported by fireTV.
Speaker 2: With an app, you can use the.
Speaker 1: Web browser to access YouTube, but that means you will
Speaker 1: not get voice commands with YouTube, which to me on
Speaker 1: the Apple TV or with Chrome Cast is kind of
Speaker 1: a big deal because YouTube has a lot of stuff. Now,
Speaker 1: taking a look at the remote control, it looks like
Speaker 1: your standard fireTV remote control, I do wish that they
Speaker 1: included a volume up and volume down button on it,
Speaker 1: and also a power button.
Speaker 2: For the TV.
Speaker 1: It's kind of odd that they didn't, but I guess
Speaker 1: they want you to use your voice commands to do
Speaker 1: all this stuff. So how is it controlling all of
Speaker 1: your home devices? Well, it does this through the use
Speaker 1: of something called Hdmi CEC. This is kind of a
Speaker 1: standardized control home theater manufacturers agree to a while back.
Speaker 1: You probably don't even know about it, but a lot
Speaker 1: of devices actually have this built in. And in fact,
Speaker 1: if you have a Chrome Cast connected to your TV,
Speaker 1: if you press the pause button on your TV remote,
Speaker 1: you'll notice it'll probably pause the video playing on your
Speaker 1: Chrome Cast. That's HDMI CEC in action. It pretty much
Speaker 1: allows the fireTV to control all kinds of devices through
Speaker 1: the Hdmi connect.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: fireTV also ups this a little bit with support for
Speaker 1: an IR blaster so it can control cable and satellite
Speaker 1: TV boxes. Amazon mentioned support for Comcast, Dish and Direct TV,
Speaker 1: but they do have a way to check for support
Speaker 1: on their website. This is a nice thing to have now.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people who are getting boxes
Speaker 1: like this are kind of chord cutters, but there's still
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of people out there who have old
Speaker 1: fashioned cable TV boxes, so this will be a nice
Speaker 1: in between.
Speaker 2: Technology to kind of bridge that gap.
Speaker 1: The things the fireTV Cube will not do that your
Speaker 1: typical Echo will Alexa calling and messaging, although we all
Speaker 1: heard about that Alexa recording the conversation and sending it
Speaker 1: to a colleague, so we probably don't want that feature
Speaker 1: right now anyway. Bluetooth sink and multi room music are
Speaker 1: also not supported, and I find that kind of odd,
Speaker 1: especially for the multi room music, because the fireTV Cube
Speaker 1: is meant to be sort of the centerpiece of your
Speaker 1: living room. So if you can't call out the songs
Speaker 1: you want to hear or the music you want to.
Speaker 2: Play across all of your Echo speakers.
Speaker 1: In your entire house, that's kind of an odd thing
Speaker 1: to not have included. But hopefully Amazon will include that
Speaker 1: in a future software update. Overall, it seems like the
Speaker 1: fireTV Cube is a solid addition to the set top
Speaker 1: box competition. Now. I've been using my Apple TV four
Speaker 1: K a little bit more these days, especially after the
Speaker 1: whole YouTube fiasco, but the fireTV system otherwise has pretty
Speaker 1: much every app that you need with a significantly cheaper
Speaker 1: price tag. So how much does this one cost? The
Speaker 1: fireTV Cube is available for pre order starting today for
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty dollars. Is ships with the IR
Speaker 1: Extender cable and also the Ethernet adapter, and that's going
Speaker 1: to ship on June twenty first.
Speaker 2: But here's a cool deal.
Speaker 1: If you're an Amazon Prime member, you can get the
Speaker 1: Cube for just ninety dollars, which is thirty dollars off
Speaker 1: the regular price, by pre ordering today or tomorrow, So
Speaker 1: that's June seventh and June eighth only. Now keep in
Speaker 1: mind that Prime Day is coming up in July, so
Speaker 1: if you don't want to make the decision today for
Speaker 1: that thirty dollars savings, I'm assuming that Amazon will discount
Speaker 1: this box a bit next month. It might not be
Speaker 1: down to ninety dollars, but you will probably find some
Speaker 1: sort of discount on this next month as well.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: If you want to see pictures of the Amazon fireTV
Speaker 1: Cube or get the link to order it on Amazon,
Speaker 1: just go to my website.
Speaker 2: It is richontech dot tv.
Speaker 1: And if you like this podcast, please leave a review
Speaker 1: in the Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2: App that way more people discover it. I'm Rich Demiro.
Speaker 2: I'll talk to you real soon.