Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Amazon Launches $39 'Fire TV Stick' to Compete With Chromecast, Apple TV
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Not being able to directly play Prime content is what kept me from buying an ATV. Airplay is not exactly an example of "seamless". If it ran the Prime app directly I would have bought it. Instead I spent less than twenty bucks to watch Prime content on our tv. Who cares if that is the only thing it does, it is less than $20. Ironically, if ATV was changed to directly play Prime, I would have easily spent five times that to get the ATV.
Amazon may not be making any money on the deal, but Apple is missing the boat on this. When "hobbies" get neglected (or even professional apps like Aperture, sadly), they often get eliminated.
----------
Should have bought two when I had the chance. FYI, delivery time as of last night is now 12/16.
Watch your ship dates. Many are well into December at this point if not later. Might not get it in time to make it a Xmas gift.
That puzzled me: Amazon, on their us-vs-them spec sheet, had a line for HBO Go and admitted "they" have it but the FireTV stick doesn't. Odd to admit dismissible limitations of a device, raising questions that weren't likely asked.
This.
Yeah, $20 to get Amazon Video content - that's a "yeah, ok" price, easy to get. I had an Amazon Video player on my Sony BluRay box, but like most Sony software it's "oh, yeah, we have to throw some checkbox stuff on there, someone go write an Amazon Video streaming app and fast" crap. I'd pay more than $20 to get Prime on the ATV, if only to minimize the amount of hardware dangling from my TV and needing to explain to others how to switch from one to another and why.
Amazon's core focus is delivering content.
Apple's core focus is delivering hardware.
You'd think the two would get that together.
I'm getting one. It'll fill the big holes that Apple TV has: Amazon Prime Video, Spotify and Pandora. That alone is worth 20 bucks.
I wish more products are compared that way. It makes me more confident in my purchase.
Well, that's a big one for some people, and I'm assuming it doesn't handle AirPlay either. If you're already invested in the Apple "ecosystem", these things make all your machines work very nicely together. If you're not, I imagine they're irrelevant to you.
1-2 features - while important - to me doesn't equate to "a lot"
Perhaps I am too much into semantics
A better turn of phrase would have been that there are two key features are missing. And like you said - those are only key if you're tied into Apple's ecosystem.
It has casting. So it should allow it from android and IOS devices. Apple does not have Amazon Video and Plex, two very big providers for me as a cord cutter.
If Apple had both of those I wouldn't bother with anything else.
Well for that matter - if you want to watch a movie - it's itunes (aside from netflix, etc).
However with Roku and others - you have access to mgo, amazon, vudu, etc. While it's nice/easy to use one platform, I have found some great deals/sales on movies from time to time by going outside of iTunes.
I actually keep an old-ass Roku -- 1st gen, I think -- around for the sole (and very occasional) purpose of streaming Amazon when necessary.
It's been quite a while since they updated the ATV, so a new one that has some app support has gotta be in the works.
I really think they have something ready, possibly even adding live TV functionality but are waiting on what happens with the Comcast - Time Warner merger.
----------
Plex is doable if you you jailbreak the ATV. Since my content is all in iTunes, it's more a nicety for me than an essential.
I use my PS4 or iPad for Amazon.
no... i made me say that lol
does your hdmi run faster with a quad core processor?
----------
haha
hier hier.
You're right, of course. And I like the idea of a thumbdrive-sized STB!
But AppleTV being so far behind is actually a very good thing!
You see, STBs are mainstream now.
They're replacing Blu-Ray players, which, in turn, replaced DVD players.
STBs are a large "space" now, as the marketeers like to call it.
Because of this, Apple no longer sees AppleTV as an experiment anymore.
The market now is flooded with many competitors: Amazon, Google, Roku, etc.
And we all know what Apple does to a market that it previously didn't own, don't we ....
Yes, that's right: as you read this, Apple is putting the finishing touches on an
STB that will blow everyone else's out of the water in terms of capability, choice & ease-of-use.
And at just $99, everyone & his cousin Joe will buy one.
Wow. Must be unfortunate to been denied a piece of technology for so long.
You guys still going to drive-ins to watch Mad Max & Muriel's Wedding for entertainment?
I wonder if the Apple TV has returned to "hobby" status at Apple given the lack of any significant development in the past few years.
----------
Dream on. Next you'll be telling me the mythical Apple Television is on the horizon. More chance of seeing the Loch Ness Monster.
----------
Dream on. Next you'll be telling me the mythical Apple Television is on the horizon. More chance of seeing the Loch Ness Monster.
