Amazon. com Help Multi-Room Music Doesn't Play on Fire TV Cube

TechnologyThe latest Fire TV devices include a revamped Cube and Anker soundbar

The first Amazon Fire TV with an OLED screen and built-in Alexa mics is here

Amazon expands its international Fire TV push

The Fire TV Cube is connected to both devices and has no trouble operating them. Two issues Is there any way to get the Fire TV Cube to play music apps only through the soundbar?

Fire TV Cube Review: The latest 4K streaming device is upgrades your TV and brings many more voice commands to your living room. That’s enabled through an included IR extender that’s included with the Fire TV Cube. The IR extender is designed to control audio hardware or gaming

Amazon isn't quite swamping the market for Alexa devices like it did last year, but it still has plenty to show for late 2019. A since-deleted TechCrunch post has revealed that Amazon is introducing more than 20 Fire TV devices at its imminent IFA event, highlighted by an upgrade to the Fire TV Cube. The media hub and smart speaker hybrid now packs a six-core processor that's roughly twice as powerful as before, with support for 4K and Dolby Vision HDR content up to 60FPS. Also, some common voice controls are now hosted on-device, making it up to four times faster -- you shouldn't have to wait in agony while the Cube navigates to the home screen.

When, where to preorder the new Amazon Fire TV sound bar, Fire TV Cube, 65-inch Toshiba

Amazon's latest Fire TV products are available to order right now.

The Fire TV Cube is retailing on Amazon for 9.99, with the option of including a Cloud Cam night-vision camera for a total of 9.98. Amazon hasn't announced prices for other regions yet, but we'd expect the basic Cube to come in at around £120 in the UK.

The Fire TV Cube has the full microphone array of an Echo, with a new design—most Echos are round, the Cube is square. Some third-party apps are also expected to roll out deeper voice integration so they’ll work well on the Cube — including Netflix, ESPN, Showtime, Starz, CBS All Access, and Hulu.

You can also expect the new box to be a better participant in your smart home. Far-field voice recognition could spare you from having to shout over the TV, while multi-directional infrared, the cloud and HDMI-CEC give you control over devices ranging from your cable box to other smart home devices.

The new Cube is available to pre-order for $120 (£110) ahead of an October 10th release in the US, Canada, UK and Germany. Japan gets it on November 5h. And if you're interested in getting a Ring video doorbell, you can pick up both the Cube and Ring's hardware in a discounted bundle for $250.

There's also some third-party Fire TV hardware that might raise your eyebrows. For a start, there's now a Fire TV Edition soundbar (pictured below) -- Anker's Nebula prov >Roku just unveiled its first soundbar, the timing is convenient.

Roku just unveiled a $180 soundbar that can stream content to your TV

Roku’s hardware portfolio just got a little larger, thanks to the unveiling Wednesday of the company’s new Smart Soundbar that functions as both a TV speaker as well as a Roku media player that can serve up a ton of content without the need for a separate device. Among its key features, the soundbar houses four different drivers to help it deliver a big improvement over your existing TV speakers. You’ll also get “automatic volume leveling” with the new soundbar, which retails for about $179.99 and which means you shouldn’t have to use a remote anymore to keep adjusting the volume because of loud and then softer volume and dialogue.

Just get an Amazon Fire TV Cube? Here's how to get it going! Once you're signed in, the Fire TV Cube will walk your through controlling your television, soundbar and other equipment If the Fire TV Cube isn't in line-of-sight with your other equipment, you'll need to use the included Infrared blaster.

Amazon's Fire TV Cube is the smart speaker and streaming media combo we've been waiting for. Amazon’s latest Alexa-powered gadget is a Fire TV and Echo smart speaker hybrid called the Fire It can also control an audio receiver or soundbar. Basically the Cube ’s hardware can control your dumb

And it wouldn't be a Fire TV event without a flood of TVs. Many of them are typical lower-cost models, but Europeans will have a crack at the first OLED Fire TV Edition set, a Grundig model available in both 55- and 65-inch versions. It starts at €1,200 for a base model, and €1,300 if you want hands-free control. You can also expect Fire TV Edition gear to reach the UK through JVC, which will sell 4K LED sets both online and at Currys PC World starting at £349. There is something for the US, too, as Toshiba will offer a 65-inch Fire TV set with Dolby Vision this October for $599.

We're expecting more details once Amazon's IFA event kicks off at 1:30PM Eastern.

© Anker Anker Nebula Fire TV Edition soundbar Amazon Day One

Amazon Fire TV Cube to support Multi-Room Music and Alexa Follow-Up Mode

Amazon is on an Alexa improvement kick with the Amazon Fire TV Cube that has been bringing formerly Echo-exclusive features to the streaming device. The Fire TV Cube gained support for Alexa Announcements earlier this month and now Amazon has announced that the next update will add support for multi-room music and Alexa follow-up mode. Multi-room music support will make it possible to sync music playback on the Fire TV Cube with all other whole-home audio capable Alexa devices, such as the Amazon Echo speaker line up. Follow-up mode allows the Fire TV Cube to continue listening after responding to a voice command so that customers don’t need to repeat the wake word before follow-up requests.

A new software update with version number 6.2.5.8 and build value NS6258/1604 should begin rolling out to Fire TV Cubes this week with these two new features in tow. Both features will be configurable through the Alexa app, just as they are with smart speakers, like the Amazon Echo.

Support for multi-room on the Fire TV Cube poses a bit of a challenge, compared to devices like the Echo and Echo Dot, due to audio lag caused by the HDMI connection. Amazon tells me they’ve built-in the ability to adjust audio lag for music on the Fire TV to fix any sync issues that arise. If the music coming out of the Fire TV Cube is out of sync with other Alexa devices, you’ll be able to press the menu button on the Fire TV Cube’s remote to bring up an on-screen slider that lets you manually compensate for the HDMI lag and sync everything up.

As for follow-up mode, it’s fairly straightforward. It’s an optional setting that you can enable for the Fire TV Cube within the Alexa app. When enabled, they Fire TV Cube will continue to listen for additional commands after it responds to an initial Alexa command. The blue LED light bar on the Fire TV Cube, as well as the blue bar that appears on the TV screen, will remain illuminated for a few seconds after each response to see if you have a follow-up response to give. You can manually end the follow-up session by saying “Cancel,” “Stop,” “Exit,” “Thank you,” or by pressing any button on the remote.

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Amazon FireTV Cube

Today on the hookup we’re going to take a look at the brand new Amazon Fire TV Cube and figure out if it is the right device for your specific situation.

According to the marketing information the amazon fire TV cube combines the functionality of 3 great devices: An amazon fireTV 4k, an amazon echo dot, and a smart universal remote like the harmony hub, all in one device for around one hundred and twenty dollars.

In practice it falls short of completely replicating the functionality of these three devices, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth buying. Depending on your specific situation it might actually make a lot of sense for you.

Lets start out by comparing the fire tv box to each device it is replacing.

The first device the cube replaces is the Amazon fireTV 4k. The fireTV 4k and the fireTV cube are extremely similar devices. They are both android streaming devices, they have the same processor, support the same resolutions, and have the same apps. The fireTV cube has 16 gigabytes of internal storage compared to the 8 gigabytes found in the fireTV 4k, but since the internal storage is mostly just used for apps this shouldn’t ever be an issue. If you’ve ever used a fireTV 4k you will not notice any significant differences in the fireTV cube.

The second device the cube replaces is the amazon echo dot, and this is where the differences start to show. The main functionality of the amazon echo dot is to respond to voice commands. An amazon echo dot has an array of 7 microphones and has what is called “far field voice recognition”, and in my personal experience the echo dot is pretty great at detecting my voice, even over moderately loud background music. The fireTV cube adds an additional microphone for a total of 8, and a software addition that amazon is calling “beamforming technology” that’s supposed to increase the accuracy of voice detection. So far I haven’t been able to tell any difference between the echo dot’s voice recognition and the fancy beamforming recognition found on the fireTV cube, they both respond to my commands 99% of the time. The fireTV cube can control all of your smart home devices and use custom skills just like the echo dot, but that’s where the similarities end.

The fireTV cube is missing some of the key software features of the echo dot. I imagine these features may be added at some point in the future, but at the time of publishing this video these features are not currently available on the fireTV cube.

First is multi-room audio.

Multi-room audio allows echo devices to become part of a group to allow you to stream your music to multiple devices in your house. Multi-room audio is supported by the echo, echo dot, echo show and echo spot, but not the echo tap, or the fireTV cube.

Second, the fireTV cube doesn’t support Alexa’s calling or drop-in intercom capabilities and instead results in this message…..

If these are features that you commonly use in your smart home, then this device is probably not for you, if not, keep on watching.

The third device the cube replaces is a universal remote hub. I use a Logitech harmony hub to control my main TV and entertainment center, and it is a fantastic device with a beautiful simple remote and a ton of great features. Both the fireTV cube and the harmony hub have the ability to turn your TV on and off, change inputs, control the volume, and change the channels using voice commands. But since the fireTV cube lacks the full standard button set of the Logitech remote, you’re stuck using your voice for the majority of those commands. And while the fireTV cube can control a select feature set for your devices and uses a simple wizard for setup, it lacks the full control and customizability of a Logitech harmony hub, which depending on your home theater setup may be an issue.

Even with all those differences, I’m still happy with my fireTV cube, and I won’t be returning it. Here’s why:

I wanted to add an echo dot to this room anyway and I won’t miss intercom or multi-room audio in this particular room. I already have a harmony hub in my house, and didn’t want to have to deal with the irritation of installing a second alexa skill explaining to my wife and 6 year old that if they want to control the family room tv they need to say “alexa turn on the TV” or “alexa turn up the volume on the TV”, but to control the exercise room tv they need to say “alexa tell harmony to turn on the TV”, or “alexa tell harmony to turn up the volume on the TV”. Because the fireTV cube has a single HDMI output there’s no need for me to switch inputs on my TV or my receiver to play music or watch shows like I previously had to do with my roku and chromecast audio setup. And… number four My favorite thing about this device is that being in our exercise room we often want to use Bluetooth headphones while working out or running on the treadmill. Our previous solution was to plug this Bluetooth transmitter into the headphone jack of the receiver and fumble through the sketchy pairing process, but on the fireTV cube you just turn on your headphones and they automatically connect and pump all of the audio straight to your ears whether it’s a movie or music. I’d imagine this would be a great solution for bedroom TVs, or watching TV after the rest of the family has gone to bed.

If your situation is similar to mine, the fireTV cube may be a great solution for you. But there’s one last thing that needs to be discussed: bugs. I saved this for last because I’m confident that amazon will release patches to fix these problems quickly, but at the time of publishing these major bugs still exist.

Priority device: The fireTV cube can do things that your other amazon devices can’t, so it’s important that if multiple echos hear your command to turn up the volume or turn off the tv, the fireTV cube responds instead of your echo dot. Let’s check out how this feature actually works in practice. Device control: This is a major bug for me. My fireTV cube knows that when I tell it to turn on the TV it powers on both the TV and receiver like this.

It also knows when to power them both off when I tell it.

But if I tell it to do anything else, like the advertised “Alexa play this is us” it only powers on the TV and leaves the receiver off, resulting in no sound until you specifically ask alexa to turn on the receiver. I’d imagine this bug is due to controlling the TV via HDMI commands and the receiver through infrared, but I honestly can’t believe it wasn’t addressed before release.

So, lets do a quick recap and address the original question: Should you buy the amazon fireTV cube?

Here’s the checklist:

If you are primarily using streaming services for your media and don’t often change channels like you would on a cable or satellite box you will be happy with the fireTV cube

If you already have a harmony hub in your house and don’t want to deal with the multiple skill setup you’ll love the simplicity of the fireTV cube

If you want hands free alexa control and you don’t use drop-in, calling, or multiroom audio the fireTV cube will act as a perfectly acceptable replacement for an echo.

If you want to occasionally use Bluetooth headphones without the hassle of re-pairing and messing with cables every time you’ll love the simplicity of the fireTV cube.

Based on your answers to the previous four questions, here’s what you should buy, and the total cost for each the setup.

US and UK Amazon links to all of the items discussed in this video are in the description below. This was my first review video on this channel. If you have suggestions for improving any future reviews please leave them down in the comments. If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing, and as always thanks for watching the hookup.

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SpongeBob SquarePants™ Inflatable Play Cube for Kindle Fire

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Available for purchase at Amazon. com: http://amzn. com/B008MQ59EG

Are you ready kids? Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBob SquarePants! Absorbent and yellow and protective is he; the super bouncy SpongeBob SquarePants Inflatable Cube for Kindle Fire® will delight and entertain children of all ages while they play and interact with their Kindle Fire. The inflatable cube helps protect the Kindle Fire from bumps and damage, safely bringing the wonder of tablet technology to young children while entertaining them with the playful faces of Bikini Bottom's favorite talking sponge. The cube is easily inflated with the included foot pump and features a protective case recessed on a padded side to hold and secure the Kindle Fire. Once inflated it can safely be bounced and turned over to use in either an upright tabletop position for playing with apps or flipped to its side for enjoying videos and episodes of your kid's favorite SpongeBob adventure. You can have peace of mind and comfortably watch your child play games, learn and discover magical interactive moments while child proofing and protecting the Kindle Fire with the official licensed Nickelodeon SpongeBob SquarePants Inflatable Cube for Kindle Fire from CTA Digital.

Features Include:

⎯ Provides a safe worry-free way for children to play with the Kindle Fire

⎯ Great for encouraging child creativity and early learning

⎯ Easily flipped for landscape, portrait or tabletop orientations

⎯ Official licensed SpongeBob SquarePants design

⎯ Recessed protective case securely holds Kindle Fire

⎯ Child-safe soft inflatable plastic padding

Specifications:

⎯ Compatible with Kindle Fire

⎯ Inflated cube measures 1.5 ft. H x 1.5 ft. W x 1.5 ft. D

Package Includes:

(1) Inflatable Cube with integrated case for Kindle Fire

(1) Foot pump

Child Safe for Play

The fully inflated cube provides air padded protection for the Kindle Fire, so it can be safely left in the playful hands of toddlers and young children. Soft plastic bumpers border the cube allowing it to be bounced and flipped around without damaging the Kindle Fire, which is securely held inside the protective case.

Clear Screen Protection

The protective case also features a clear plastic screen cover that effectively guards the tablet screen from smudges, drool and messy hands, while still allowing seamless multi-touch control and a clear view of the screen.

Flip Views for Videos or Apps

The cubed shape provides great support for the Kindle Fire, creating a stable stand that can easily flip from a tabletop orientation, ideal for navigating and playing with apps, to its side for a TV style setup, best for enjoying videos and movies. It can also easily rotate from a horizontal landscape view to a vertical portrait layout. Kids will enjoy any way they turn the cube with the surrounding side panels featuring fun and playful images of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Inflatable Fun for Kids

The lightweight inflated cube weighs just under 2lbs., measures approximately 1.5 ft on each side and fits nicely into a child's play area. Simply setup by opening the 2 air valves and inflate each section with the included foot pump. It can also be easily deflated with the same pump to store away for travel and later use.

© 2012 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. Nickelodeon, SpongeBob SquarePants and all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. SpongeBob SquarePants created by Stephen Hillenburg.