Amazon just added another model to its increasingly crowded selection of living room offerings. There’s bound to be some consumer confusion around the line, but the Cube differentiates itself by bridging the gap between Fire TV and Echo. Sure, past set top offerings have incorporated Alexa control, but this latest addition folds in the full smart speaker experience. In fact, the Cube looks like a big, square Echo Dot. It’s not much to look at, honestly, but the familiar design elements are all there, including the four Echo buttons on top and a glowing blue light that lets you know when Alexa is listening. The Fire TV Cube follows the lead of the JBL Link Bar announced back at I/O, which has Chromecast built in and effectively doubles as a Google Home when not in use. Here, however, the speaker is only really good for Echo-like functionality. Amazon is largely banking on users bringing their own home theater system to the table. The upshot of that is that the device runs $120 normally, a price that includes an IR extender capable and ethernet adapter. And those who pre-order the thing in the next two days can get their hands on one for $90. There’s also a $200 bundle that includes Amazon’s Cloud Cam, for those who really want to go all in with Amazon hardware. Setup is apparently pretty simply, too. You plug it into the TV, and the system will detect the model (or you can enter that info manually). It will ask how you listen to the TV and then set up the audio. From there, you tell it your cable provider and zip code and it’s off the races. Amazon says it’s compatible with 90-percent of cable and satellite subscription service. Naturally, Alexa can be used to control the TV, and there are eight far-field mics on board, so it will play nicely with other Echo devices. The Fire TV Cube starts shipping June 21.<doc-sep>Amazon (AMZN) has debuted a new version of its Fire TV that mashes up the streaming box with the company’s super-popular Echo speaker. The new Fire TV Cube, available June 21 for $119, or $89 if you’re a prime member and pre-order it between June 7 and June 8, is designed to serve as a high-end Fire TV that you can completely control via Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. The Fire TV Cube combines Amazon’s Fire TV with its Echo speaker. The thrust of the Fire TV Cube is that it can do virtually everything an Echo can, as well as let you control nearly all aspects of your television-watching experience. During a demo of the Cube, Amazon’s global director of marketing for the Fire TV brand, Jennifer Prenner, explained how you can tell the Cube to turn on your TV and soundbar and tune to a specific cable channel using nothing but your voice. Embracing streaming and cable That’s right — despite the fact that the Fire TV is one of the best streaming devices around, Prenner says Amazon wanted to ensure Cube can control your cable box. “We want customers to have access to any content they want, no matter where they get it from,” she said. The Fire TV Cube, as its name suggests, is a small black cube that sits next to your TV — you can also get an infrared cable extender to park your Cube inside your entertainment cabinet. Like Amazon’s Echo devices, the Cube features a blue indicator light that tells you when Alexa is listening. There are also mute and volume buttons along the top of the Cube. It’s important to note that you can currently pair a Fire TV with an existing Echo speaker. But that experience isn’t exactly seamless, and a standalone Echo can’t control nearly as many aspects of your entertainment system as the Cube can. Voice navigation Amazon’s Fire TV Cube has an HDMI port and IR extender. The Fire TV Cube’s user interface is more or less unchanged from previous Fire TV systems. In fact, if you decide to use a remote, you won’t notice any difference at all. But if you’re into using your voice, the Cube will let you do everything from open menus to scroll through lists of shows. Story continues Not sure what you want to watch? You can tell the Cube to show you specific genres and browse the various shows and movies available through your streaming providers. When watching content, you’ll be able to use your pipes to pause shows, raise and lower the volume, fast-forward and rewind, jump to the next episode and browse all episodes. During my demo session, Prenner only picked up the Cube’s remote once, and that was to download the Firefox browser to show me how you can also use your voice to pull up YouTube videos. Yes, while Amazon and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) continue their spat over device sales and content hosting, you’ll still be able to get access to YouTube using the Cube’s browser-based app. A little Fire, a little Show You can navigate the Fire TV Cube with a your voice, but if you don’t feel like talking to your TV, you can always rely on your trusty remote. The Fire Cube also takes advantage of some of the same content Amazon uses to power its Echo Show. When you ask Alexa to show you the weather, for instance, it will pull up a forecast that looks exactly like that displayed on the Show. The same is true for Flash Briefings and games like “Jeopardy.” The Cube can even stream a live view of your connected webcam to your big-screen TV. I’m a big fan of the Show; I use it every morning to check the weather and listen to music on it whenever I have company over or want to blast some Taylor Swift and have a good cry — so I’m glad to see that the the same functionality has made its way to the Cube. Like any Alexa-powered device in Amazon’s stable, the Cube will let you control your various smart home devices and take advantage of Alexa’s tens of thousands of skills. Of course, the Cube has the chops to run with the big dogs when it comes to streaming devices, too. Like the Apple (AAPL) TV 4K, the Cube can stream 4K, HDR content. The Apple TV 4K, however, starts at $179 with 32GB of storage. The Cube gets 16GB of space for $119. A standard Apple TV costs $149. Roku’s (ROKU) 4K, HDR Ultra box costs $99. What it can’t do When the Cube initially hits the market later this month, there will be a few Alexa features that it won’t be able to use. For one, it won’t be able to support multi-room playback, so if you want to fill your entire house with the sounds of LFO, you’ll need to use a different Echo in your living room. You also won’t be able to send or recieve messages, or make calls from the Cube. Prenner says that multi-room playback will hit the Cube in the future; they’re just more concerned with it working well as a streaming device first and foremost. As for communication features, Prenner said that they’re still looking into whether something like that would make sense for people when watching TV. Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@oath.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley. Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn<doc-sep>
Teased a little over a month ago, e-commerce giant Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) has just officially announced its Fire TV Cube, a new Alexa-powered set-top box. Details about the Fire TV Cube had leaked to AFTVnews late last year, and the official announcement is mostly in line with those leaked images. Fire TV Cube is a hands-free streaming media player that supports 4K Ultra HD, HDR, Dolby Atmos audio, and looks like...well, it looks like a cube. However, the big twist is that Fire TV Cube does not require a remote, although one is included in the box. "Alexa, turn on the TV." Much like Echo devices, Fire TV Cube includes far-field voice recognition that leverages numerous microphones and beamforming technology. There is a small light blue light bar across the top of the device for visual feedback, similar to what is found on Echo devices. Users will be able to control the device entirely through voice commands without ever having to touch the Alexa remote. Even if the TV is off, users will be able to ask Alexa to turn the TV on, as well as other commands like adjusting volume or switching inputs. Fire TV Cube will support all the most popular over-the-top (OTT) streaming services that you would expect a modern set-top box to, including Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, and more. Live TV services are also available when connected to certain cable providers, which Amazon says will cover 90% of cable-subscribing households. Since Alexa is deeply integrated, that also means users will be able to control all of their smart-home devices through Fire TV Cube as well. This is particularly interesting use case (more on this later). Priced at $120, Fire TV Cube will be the most expensive Fire TV device, but more affordable than competing products like the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) TV 4K, which is only now about to receive Dolby Atmos support and starts at $179. However, Amazon is already discounting Fire TV Cube for Prime members, who can purchase it for $90 for a limited time. Fire TV Cube will ship later this month on June 21. Amazon just out-Appled Apple Once upon a time, Apple envisioned using the Apple TV as a smart-home hub, but that vision has mostly languished in the years since. Instead, Amazon took the smart-home market by storm with the original Echo and Alexa, barely stopping to catch its breath. While Apple continues to struggle with making Siri competitive even to this day, Alexa is a thriving voice platform with over 25,000 skills. As Apple is wont to do, it made HomeKit a little too closed off, with onerous requirements on smart-home device manufacturers that inevitably hindered adoption at the manufacturer level. Specifically, Apple had certain hardware requirements for HomeKit certification, and only started transitioning to software authentication last year (Amazon has always primarily utilized software authentication). That's helped increase the number of HomeKit devices for Apple's platform, but now Apple is scrambling to catch up in smart-home technology. To be clear, Apple TV can be used as a smart-home hub via the Siri Remote, but the challenge is that the HomeKit ecosystem itself is underwhelming. Not only is Alexa a much more robust smart-home platform, but Amazon also just took things a step further by removing the need for a remote altogether, providing an even more intuitive and seamless voice-controlled experience. The net result of all of this is that Amazon just realized a fuller version of Apple's own vision before the Mac maker could.