I recently got set up in a new office outside of my house, and I like to have movies, TV shows, and sports on in the background when I am working.
I didn’t think I needed to get cable TV, since I could run Google Chromecast through my laptop for Amazon Prime and Netflix.
But I’ve never really liked Chromecast (it simply wouldn’t work with the Internet in two hotel rooms when I tried), so I was excited when I saw the Amazon Fire TV announcement on April 1.
I initially thought it was another corporate joke, and I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it, but then I started seeing write-ups on it.
Amazon Fire TV is competing with Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast, and I haven’t used Roku or Apple TV to date, because I had either smart TVs or Blu-Ray players that had apps for streaming shows and movies.
But I picked up a non-smart TV for my office since I planned to pair it with Chromecast, and Amazon Fire TV has been a fantastic compliment.
Not only was it quick and easy to setup, but since I bought it through my Amazon Prime account, all of my past purchases were already ready for me when I plugged it in.
One concern I had about going without cable was a lack of live sports, but Amazon Fire TV also has an app for ESPN and all of their channels, as well as tons of other apps.
The remote is pretty cool, too. It’s got voice search and it’s been perfect with my mumbling so far (take that, Siri!).
Also, there are lots of game apps available for free or cheap. They offer an Amazon Fire Game Controller to purchase separately.
My kids and I are digging the games so much that I’ve ordered a second controller for multi-player games. For example, NBA 2K14 was just $7.99 and it was a quick download and install. They say they’ve got thousands of more games on the way.
I look forward to seeing what else is added on to Amazon Fire TV, and I think it was well worth the $99 price tag.