set top box - SlashGear

Gripes of a Cable Cutter (and why Internet TV will solve them)

Brittany A. Roston | Apr 22, 2014

Cable-cutting -- the act of cancelling your cable or satellite subscription to join the ranks of occasionally holier-than-thou set-top-boxers -- is a slowly growing change to how many get their daily entertainment fix. Benefits abound for cutting the cable, and you've likely heard the tropes by now: lower cost, better access to content in the moment, and the reality that cable-cutting better fits with many viewers' schedules (if you're time-shifting all your shows around your work schedule, there's little point in keeping a traditional cable subscription, after all).

Roku 3 owners score search on mobile

Brittany A. Roston | Apr 15, 2014

Roku 3 device owners who utilized the mobile app will soon have access to search on mobile, according to an announcement on the company's blog today. The same feature will then roll out to mobile users of older Roku players "in the coming weeks".

Amazon Fire TV sold out: low supply, high demand, or both

Chris Burns | Apr 11, 2014

It would appear that the biggest competitor to Google’s Chromecast has "pulled a Chromecast" and sold out no more than a week after being put on sale. Here we’re seeing the $99 USD Amazon Fire TV sold out through Amazon itself, heading to an "in stock" note for April 18th, one week from today.

Amazon Fire TV: everything you need to know

Chris Burns | Apr 2, 2014

The living room market has earned itself another contender this April with Amazon Fire TV. This device is a 4.5" x 4.5" x 0.7" (115 mm x 115 mm x 17.5 mm) box with several outputs on its back and its own dedicated remote control, aimed at being connected to your television via HDMI. From there, you’ll be using the internet to watch TV.

Amazon Fire TV apps include Netflix, Hulu, ESPN

Chris Burns | Apr 2, 2014

In Amazon Fire TV is the company’s first look at a real dedicated piece of hardware for the living room. Using a quad-core processor with "dedicated GPU", this device is said by Amazon to be "3x as powerful" as Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku devices. The device is a box which sits near your television - tiny and unobtrusive (but not quite a dongle, as it were).

Amazon Fire TV detailed: set-top box of simplicity

Chris Burns | Apr 2, 2014

Today Amazon’s Peter Limp stood on stage to speak about why Amazon’s services need revamping on the variety of streaming devices they’re already pushed to today. Instead of focusing on Amazon’s services specifically, Limp suggested that devices like Roku, Apple TV, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 needed a push in the "Search" direction for content.

Roku CEO makes fun of Apple TV calling it an iPad accessory

Shane McGlaun | Mar 28, 2014

There are no shortage of set top boxes on the market today. Some of the most popular come from Roku. About a year ago, Roku launched the Roku 3 set top box and it is one of the most popular devices the company sells. Apple is also in the market with a product called the Apple TV that has been called a hobby for the company.

Amazon set-top box event set for April 2nd

Chris Burns | Mar 27, 2014

This week Amazon has sent out invites to an event that’ll be held in New York City next week. This event will take place on the 2nd of April and will center on what Amazon describes as an "an update for our video business." While it’s possible that Amazon might be speaking about their streaming video content delivery services, it’s also likely they’re speaking about their long-awaited television set-top box.

BlackBerry BBTV images surface years after project was killed

Shane McGlaun | Mar 19, 2014

For a bunch of years, BlackBerry was one of the most popular makers of smartphones out there. Things started to turn on Blackberry when the iPhone launched and suddenly BlackBerry devices were old and boring in the eyes of many users. Back in 2011, a project rumor was making the rounds focusing on a new offering from BlackBerry.

Amazon set top box tipped for April shipping

Brittany A. Roston | Mar 17, 2014

Rumors and leaks concerning Amazon's upcoming set top box have been increasing over the past weeks, and latest among them is a tip by sources that spoke to The Wall Street Journal saying the streaming device will start shipping some time early next month, though a precise date could not be provided.

Amazon TV set top box may use NVIDIA GRID to initiate cloud gaming

Chris Burns | Mar 17, 2014

When the folks at Lab126 (Amazon’s "inventive research and development company") started work on a set-top box, it’s said this week, it wasn’t the same dongle we’re being tipped on this week. What’s being tipped this week via TechCrunch is a stick that’s essentially the same size as Chromecast, shipping with support for a massive amount of media - and not just TV shows and movies. Instead it could be time to bring cloud gaming to the forefront as OnLive has, bringing full-fledged PC gaming to the television using Amazon’s servers remotely.

Apple TV camera hint surfaces in job listing

Brittany A. Roston | Mar 12, 2014

Job listings recently posted on Apple's website are putting out a call for professionals to join the company's Camera Software team, which isn't notable in and of itself. Nestled within the job descriptions, however, is a mention of the Apple TV, hinting at a camera-equipped future for the device.