I have a fire tv and an echo dot In the same room so this makes sense. Only draw back is typically, the fire tv box is close to the TV which is also close to speakers which is playing the sound from the tv which makes Alexa not able to understand what you are saying when far away…
Potential here is using the multiroom audio function, you can have a digital connection (hopefully) which will not rely on Bluetooth which you can not use if using multi room grouping…
Hmmm…I see this being a hit especially since you still have the remote if things are too loud.
I haven’t tried the multi room audio yet, since my setup currently is using Bluetooth connections. Have you had a chance to use it? I was thinking of switching some things around, but maybe I’ll wait to see if amazon changes that drawback.
And tomorrow, Apple is expected to announce their new Apple TV.
I have two dots on WiFi, one upstairs and one downstairs. I’ve used the multi room audio function a few times. Sometimes it works as it should and sometimes it doesn’t one the 1st try or two. It’s nice to be able to tell my downstairs dot to play music upstairs before going upstairs and getting where that dot can hear me effectively.
I have a fire stick. Echo and Dots can now control fire tv also. The only upgrade I can see for the new fire tv stick is support for 4K and HDR content.
I have 3 hooked up with the 3.5mm jack connection and I have to say that it’s pretty freaking awesome!
I have chosen to just manually connect the jacks when wanting to listen to music and leave it disconnected in all other situations.
Two of my soundbars can “wake-up” when hearing something on their digital (optical) connections. I was thinking of getting some analog to digital converters so I can still have “Big” sound from the small dots and still have the soundbars goto sleep when not in use.
All of the soundbars wake up from Bluetooth.
Still, even with the “extra” equipment Inhave been researching, it’s still cheaper than a Sonos system…
Huge Apple fanboy but never invested in the Apple TV. So far, Amazon Fire TVs and Firesticks are winners in my home.
This is coming from someone who “had” about 8 HTPCs.
Really like the Nividia Shield. Really LOVE Alexa!
Fire TV is only a couple dollars more for 4K. HDR is awesome but not much content. I have a Vizio P-65 and although it can play 4K HDR, most of viewing, 98%, is upscaled 1080p which looks freaking awesome on the display…
Either way, this is exciting times with some awesome tech. Wish we had this stuff when I was growing up playing on an Atari with the black and white 18" TV with the 
ears antenna!
I have at fire stick so upgrading to this isn’t much of an upgrade really for me. My TV has a very good image but its not HDR or 4K so having a 4K streaming device wouldn’t show it’s full potential.
I had an atari and a commodore 64. I remember having channels you could count on one hand. You would slowly go through the all static channels looking for any new ones that were added. If you wanted to call someone, you called their home phone and left a recorded message on a tape cassette recording machine if nobody was home. Now kids have cell phones before they learn to read even. Kids today are spoiled with technology. If we had this stuff back then, imagine where we could be today.
Not sure where that writer looked but I can find Fire TV and fire tv sticks on amazon. They just aren’t pushing them as much with a new version pending. Most likely they will do what they always do, release the new version and discount the old version to sell it off. They will make a buck on people thinking they are getting a special price.
The carousel changes what items are highlighted regularly. I’ll go days and not see Fire anything and sometimes the Fire stick etc is displayed for days.
Sadly a lot of “journalists” don’t do research at all. They just rehash what they read some where on line and the truth may or may not be there.
If I had a 4K TV I would consider upgrading to the new version.
That was not on my Amazon page when I searched just a few minutes ago. Now it’s displayed right below the still available fire tv stick.