AFTVnews The new flagship Fire TV model is the unreleased “AFTA” device that surfaced for the first time last week. Without the luxury of a leaked benchmark, I don’t know anything about its technical specifications, but I have learned that it essentially combines the functionality of a Fire TV, an Echo Dot, and an IR emitter, like the Harmony Hub, into a single device.
I've been watching for MediaTek for some time because I have heard that its chips are optimized for video streaming.
This article provides some confirmation of that - some of us think that phones or smaller devices optimized for video streaming are going to be a HUGE market. I've clipped the key lines from the article, but check it out at the link.
Qualcomm, Inc.: How MediaTek Won Chip Orders For Next Amazon Fire TV
We at Bidness Etc believe MediaTek might stand to make a statement by luring Amazon. The truth is MediaTek won’t register a massive win against Qualcomm, especially since the video-streaming device market is a niche market and is considerably smaller than the phone market when it comes to volume. However, MediaTek is making rapid strides in a market largely dominated by fewer players, and winning orders for Amazon products will represent a major statement of intent from the Taiwan-based chip maker.
The headline reads: Now, if you've been onboard and following MicroVision for a while, you'll remember something key. If you're relatively new to following MicroVision, this will be new. Watch this video. (Odds are you haven't seen it, because -- look at the view count.) The video below is projecting on the ceiling with a Kindle Fire tablet with an embedded PicoP projector. From the 2013 Annual Stockholder's Meeting.
That will give some interesting context to the following snippets from an April 2, 2015 MotleyFool article: From Motley Fool
The headline reads: Amazon Fire TV Just took a huge shot at AppleTV and Chromecast.
Road warriors rejoiceFirst, Amazon added public Wi-Fi compatibility to both Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. Translation? Fire TV will now work on those pesky hotel Wi-Fi connections that require a Web browser to sign in.
This might sound like a minor improvement, but it addresses a major complaint among a large group of media streaming connoisseurs who have so far been disappointed by the lack of options to seamlessly complete this task. For example, neither Google Chromecast nor Apple TV currently support public Wi-Fi by default. As a result, users of these devices have had to resort to cumbersome workarounds such as spoofing their MAC address or using a separate travel router to essentially trick such Wi-Fi connections into allowing their devices to connect.
Amazon Fire TV now supports external USB storage, Credit: Amazon.
External storageNext, Amazon Fire TV now supports the use of USB flash drives (up to 128GB) for additional storage of games and apps. This update doesn't extend to the smaller Fire TV Stick -- which is roughly the same size as a USB flash drive in the first place -- but it's still great for Fire TV users given the thousands of games and apps the platform has supported since its launch. Apple TV, for its part, has a USB port for service and support, while Chromecast has a size/hardware dilemma in this case that is similar to Fire TV Stick's.
