Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.
According to rumor after rumor, Amazon is working on a TV box that will let users watch Amazon Instant Video on their televisions. But like Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets, the Amazon TV box won’t be limited to running only AMazon apps and services.
According to GigaOm’s sources, the box will also support Hulu Plus, Netflix, and other online video sources. That could make it competitive with other TV boxes from Roku, Apple, and others.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- Amazon TV Box will reportedly support Netflix, Hulu Plus, other competing video streaming services
There’s still a lot we don’t know — like how much the box will cost, when it will launch, or if it’ll run apps and games in addition to video services. [GigaOm] - OnePlus One smartphone will get Moto X-style “always listening” voice actions
The company is slowly letting us know what to expect from its upcoming phone… and so far it sounds pretty good. [OnePlus] - Google buys video game controller company Green Throttle
This could be evidence that Google is developing a game console… or maybe Google just wanted to hire the team to work on other projects. [PandoDaily] - Apparently people *do* want a high-def portable media player
Neil Young-backed PonoPlayer launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking to raise $800,000 yesterday. They smashed past that goal quickly, and less than a day later were closing in on the $2 million mark. [Kickstarter] - ABI Report: Chinese handset vendors to account for more than half the market in 2015
China’s already a key player in the supply chain, but according to ABI, soon more than half of phones will actually be manufactured by Chinese OEMs. Huawei and ZTE are already making a big splash, but Lenovo and Xiaomi could see major growth soon. [BusinessWire] - Samsung Chromebook 2 w/Exynos 5 Octa benchmarked
Not surprisingly, it’s faster than Samsung’s last Chromebook, which had an Exynos 5 Dual chip. What is surprising is that it doesn’t seem to be all that *much* faster. [Mobile Geeks]
You can keep up on the latest headlines by following Liliputing on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
I think it will be interesting to see how this develops.
Unless it supports over 750 channels I don’t really see this as a better STB than the Roku. Given all the talk about Amazon raising the price of Prime memberships Amazon may have an uphill struggle. Sure, they have a lot of muscle in the market, but launching their own box will also draw attention to Rokus.