Amazon’s looking to expand their smart home tech to your cable box. Despite the millions of cord-cutters, and the downward trend of Comcast, the cable box is a mainstay in many living rooms. Amazon, for their part, wants to help eliminate all those remotes that are cluttering your coffee table. By integrating the fantastic Alexa software into your cable experience, of course. Voice-controlled TV is nothing new, but voice controlled cable with the responsive and helpful Alexa? That could be a game changer.
Alexa, Turn on the Game
By interfacing with your cable box, the Amazon Fire TV Cube seeks to make your old cable experience high-tech. Acting as something of a streaming device crossed with a cable box, the TV Cube brings Netflix and Hulu into the same platform as your cable service. Amazon’s own streaming service will be included, too, of course. If you’ve ever used a Roku or Apple TV, you know what you’re in for here.
The selling point here, of course, is smart home integration. You can hook your whole home entertainment system into your smart home infrastructure. “Alexa, turn on the game,” could cause Alexa to dim the lights, draw the curtains, turn on ESPN and disable notifications. That’s just one example. Amazon seems to be dead-set on making every aspect of life at home as comfortable as possible.
Competition Comes in Many Forms
Interestingly, Amazon isn’t the only company jumping into voice-activated smart TVs. The Sonos Beam soundbar coming later this year will have similar functionality. It will come equipped with Alexa when it launches but won’t support cable box integration. Still, the soundbar presents interesting competition for Amazon, as it is also a great audio device.
The biggest difference between the two voice-TV devices? It’s their price point. The Sonos Beam will retail for $400, while the Amazon Fire TV Cube will launch at $120.
When does the Amazon Fire TV Cube Launch?
The newest smart home innovation from Amazon launches on June 21st. It’s available Prime Members today for $90, so if it sounds like something you want, and you have Prime, snag it now. After today (June 8th,) it will retail for its normal price, even for Prime members.
Feature Image Credit: Digital Trends
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