“As I’ve grown older, I’ve embracd the benefits of never being an early adopter. But on Thursday, for the first time in years, I bought something the day after it came out — the Amazon.com Fire TV set-top streaming box,” Michael Comeau writes for Minyanville. “I stream Netflix content all the time using an Apple TV, but I really wanted a box that could also access Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service, to which I am a subscriber.”
“On Saturday, my Fire TV arrived in the mail, and I immediately put it through its paces,” Comeau writes. “If you go to movies on the Fire TV home screen, the top category is ‘Recently Added to Prime’ while the fourth one down is ‘Top Movies on Prime.’ There are also Prime movies integrated into ‘Recommended Movies’ …But beyond that, there’s no obvious way to screen specifically for Prime movies — they’re all mixed in with paid content. TV basically works the same way. Browsing through genres didn’t help much, either.”
“On Apple TV, everything’s laid out so you can easily navigate all the options and categories,” Comeau writes. “If you’re into Netflix and/or you need HBO Go right now, Apple TV seems like a better choice because of its ease of use… I was hoping the Fire TV would give me the ultimate streaming experience. But ultimately, it’s a letdown.”
Read more in the full article here.
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I have a 2nd Gen (720p Hockey Puck) Apple TV, a TiVo and the “high end” Roku box. I HATE having three boxes. I use the TiVO to DVR TV shows, I use AppleTV for Netflix and the Roku for my Amazon Prime and to rent movies on Amazon. I can watch Netlfix on any of them but the AppleTV is always my family’s favorite. For those folks that say they “love” the Roku I have to wonder if they have ever used an AppleTV. The Roku interface has a ton of “lag” and is cartoonish and simple. I may buy an Amazon Fire and lose the Roku. I like having access to Amazon because movies are often cheaper on Amazon than on Apple but my “perfect” world would be AppleTV with Amazon Prime and Amazon movies built in…NEVER going to happen but would love it.
I have the Amazon Fire TV, and yes, it’s much better than the Roku, but the author of this article is absolutely correct in saying the UI is a mess. It is… for now.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Amazon Prime on Apple TV. It’s on the iPhone and iPad, and I’d imagine as soon as Apple releases an SDK, Amazon will start working on it. Amazon isn’t making money on the box, but rather the delivery, so they want to be on as many devices as possible.
How about Tim Cook designate the resources to make Apple TV a serious product that can finally put crap like this out of its misery. Between that and the big screen iPhone 6, he’d have two ways to make his tenure an actual improvement over Steve.
My friend if you think ANYTHING short of Tim Cook healing the sick, and raising the dead will make him an improvement to Steve Jobs you are sadly mistaken. I really like Tim but come on…one and only one Steve Jobs God Rest His Soul!
God rest his soul, indeed. While he was a great man he was far from perfect. His failure to detect and adapt to the demand of larger phones and his mistreatment of the Apple TV will go down as serious blunders. Tim has a chance to correct these errors.
What is that thing
Wow!! The impression you get from the 3 paragraphs above in comparison to the actual article is VERY different. Way to give it a spin MDN.. 😛