Amazon is adding Alexa to the original Fire TV and Fire TV Stick
Amazon brought Alexa to the TV with its second-generation Fire TV set-top box, and now, a few months later, the company is also doing the same for owners of its original box. Starting today and continuing “over the next few weeks,” Fire TV and Fire TV Stick customers will be receiving a software update that adds Amazon’s personal assistant to the older hardware. Both devices already include voice search for finding movies and TV shows to watch, but Alexa adds a bit more functionality to the mix.
Alexa can’t quite do everything that’s possible with the Amazon Echo speaker, but you can still ask for useful things like the weather, traffic updates, and sports scores. Alexa on Fire TV can also find local restaurants, control certain home automation products, and reorder previous purchases you’ve made with Amazon.
The imminent software update also gives original Fire TV Stick owners the option of using Bluetooth headphones for private listening. And finally, Amazon says it’s made improvements to the add-up subscriptions service that lets customers sign up for Showtime or Starz right from the set-top box and without cable.
Source: Yahoo News
