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Amazon Fire TV device will stop working in weeks | News Tech
An Amazon Fire TV accessory will soon be completely unusable, the company has said.
The tech giant emailed customers saying that support for the Fire TV Blaster will be phased out.
As much as Amazon has stopped selling tech before, this is the first time they’ve bricked a perfectly functioning smart home device.
The tiny Echo Flex smart speaker, for example, was discontinued in 2021 but still works to this day.
Amazon stopped selling the Fire TV Blaster last year.
An email to people who have bought the gadget says: ‘In the coming weeks, support for Fire TV Blaster will be discontinued, and the device will stop working.’
What is a Fire TV Blaster?
The clue’s in the name as to how Fire TV Blasters work – they emit infrared signals to TV sets, soundbars and satellite boxes.
Fire TV Stick owners can use the device to add hands-free voice control built into a Fire TV Cube.
In other words, you could ask Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa, to switch a device off, adjust the volume or change the channel.
But they need to be with an Echo smart speaker and require both the Fire TV and Alexa apps.
To soften the blow, Amazon said it will offer customers a discount on its high-end streaming box, the Fire TV Cube.
However, the tech does not have an infrared blaster – which works like a TV remote does – meaning there’s no real replacement.
They also have the option to post their soon non-functioning Blaster to Amazon to recycle it.
The Fire TV Blaster wasn’t the most popular in the world, having a modest 3.8 stars out of 3,600 reviews on Amazon.
Most reviews said setting up the device was a tall order and voice commands were on the ‘clunky’ side.
The Fire TV Stick crackdown
But the Blaster isn’t the only thing Amazon is looking to discontinue.
The company recently beefed up its efforts to crack down on so-called ‘dodgy’ Fire TV Sticks, which let users illegally stream paid content for free.
Some 1.5 million adults have illegally streamed in the past six months using jailbroken Amazon Fire TV Sticks, according to a YouGov poll.
The police have even carried out raids to find people bootlegging content, while Amazon is working with anti-piracy groups to identify unofficial apps on its stores.
People using the dodgy sticks, also called ‘modded’ sticks, are now being shown a warning if they’re using an illegal app.
While people can still simply close the notification, it will soon be replaced by a pop-up saying the app can’t be used at all.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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