Now pointlessly enhanced with AI
New seasons of Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley and Veep is now live on HBO. Those are the three shows that I have on my watch list.
I do not have HBO, let alone cable TV. Usually I would go to my friends’ house to watch any HBO shows. This time I can watch them in the comfort of my own through HBONow. I have not watch the new episodes yet, but for sure I’ll be watching them on the Apple TV.
Pretty interesting move by Amazon to release Fire TV Stick. It sells for $39.00 and comes with a free 30-day trial of Netflix and Amazon Prime. Existing Amazon Prime customers get $20 off Fire TV Stick.
Amazon is clearly positioning Fire TV Stick against Google Chromecast, which currently sells for under $30 at Amazon and Roku Streaming Stick, which currently sells for $49.00 at Amazon.
It’s all thanks to a dual-core processor with 6x the processing power of Roku Streaming Stick, a dedicated VideoCore4 GPU, and 8 GB of storage—4x that of Chromecast and 32x that of Roku Streaming Stick.
I have Google Chromecast which currently is not connected to any TV. I ordered Amazon Fire TV Stick out of curiosity. I do enjoy Amazon Fire TV, until I stopped using it in favor of Apple TV; blame it on HBO GO and iTunes Home Sharing.
Apple releases iTunes 11.3.
Apple also adds iTunes Extra to Apple TV.
Just a few comparison photos of Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV.
Amazon Fire TV has larger surface area than Apple TV.
Amazon Fire TV is 0.3 inch shorter than Apple TV.
Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV both have:
Unlike Apple TV which has a built-in power supply, Amazon Fire TV requires an external power adapter.
Amazon Fire TV has a USB port that is currently serves no purpose, at least that’s what the User’s Guide says. Apple TV has a micro-USB for firmware update/restore.
After a long day, I finally had a chance to take the Amazon Fire TV out of its packaging.
Amazon Fire TV packaging is definitely different than Apple TV’s in many ways.
Amazon Fire TV comes with a remote, power adapter and 2 AAA batteries.
Available ports on Apple Fire TV:
The first generation of Amazon Fire TV comes with 5.49GB of storage.
End of Amazon Fire TV: Unboxed
I picked up an Apple TV on Tuesday, March 4, 2014. I needed one for instructional purpose and the $25 iTunes Gift Card was a pleasant bonus. I noticed that the status light on the Apple TV stays on even when it was supposed to be in sleep mode. Afterward I noticed that the Apple TV felt really warm. This is the third Apple TV I owned, the other two are still in use and do not behave like this one.
According to Apple Support document the status light on Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation):
This particular Apple TV does not Flash in any way. The main concern is that this Apple TV actually stays on even though it is supposedly in sleep mode.
March 5, 2014 will be the last day to buy an Apple TV and get a $25 iTunes Gift Card.
I got one earlier today because I happened to need one, for educational purpose.
As usual some news outlet translated the promotion as a sign that new Apple TV is coming out really soon, only to be debunked by the bearded one*.
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* Jim Dalrymple knows someone at Apple.