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Amazon launched the Fire TV about a week ago, and already it looks like the company’s having a hard time keeping its TV box in stock. As of April 11th, the Fire TV page on Amazon says the online video streaming, game playing device will be “in stock on April 18th.”
Amazon says it’s building more Fire TV boxes as quickly as possible and chalks up running out of stock to “customer response.” But as usual, Amazon hasn’t actually said how many devices it produced or how many it’s sold — so maybe the company sold a million… or maybe there were only a few hundred boxes and they all sold out quickly.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- Amazon Fire TV is out of stock… but we don’t really know what that means
Putting a new product on the homepage of Amazon is a good way to goose sales. [CNET} - First-gen Intel Atom Bay Trail chips set to retire soon, make way for more powerful Silvermont/Bay Trail chips
Time is running out to pick up a device with an Atom Z3740 or Z3770 processor. But don’t worry, that’s only because Z3745, Z3775, and other new chips with advanced features are coming. [CPU World] - Now you can root many versions of the Samsung Galaxy S5
Developer Chainfire has come up with ways to root the GSM-LTE version of hte phone, T-Mobile, US Cellular, MetroPCS, and international Samsung Exynos models, among others. Sadly the AT&T and Verizon models are still locked down… for now. [Android Police] - Plastic Logic shows off a 4 inch, flexible, 360 x 128 pixel OLED display
Know how to make a display tough to break? Make it flexible. Plastic Logic displays usually show up in eReaders, but this OLED screen seems to be phone-sized. [The Digital Reader] - Samsung Gear Fit teardown
The folks at iFixit have a habit of ripping part new gadgets to see if they can put them back together. Sometimes they can… this time they’ve dissected Samsung’s just-released fitness tracker and smartphone companion. [iFixit] - Samsung Galaxy S5 teardown
Hey look! They took apart Samsung’s newest flagship phone too. [iFixit] - Sony Vaio Fit 11A bug may cause batteries to catch fire
Bad news: the tablet might burst into flames. Good news: Only about 26,000 units have actually been sold, so you’re probably not affected. Wait… is that good news for Sony or not? [The Verge]
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I thought the guys at HD nation did a fair review. Most of the serious issues (such as pusing you toward Amazon-based media and the more costly options even there, limited functionality for non-Amazon streaming sites) are probably “version 1” limitations though. It doesn’t compete well with Roku yet and people should probably wait for the next generation before buying a Fire TV box.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxsf2853UUk&list=UUsGHZGxaalGvMqBH8munTFw
Not out of stock at my Best Buy… 😉
What I like about Amazon Fire TV is that you can change your router DNS to unlock all American channels included as Netflix and Hulu Plus, with chromecast it is very hard to achieve the same, see https://thevpn.guru/unblock-american-channels-amazon-fire-tv/