Fireplace TV’s greatest replace in years and how you can take care of it
Abstract created by Sensible Solutions AI
In abstract:
- Amazon’s Fireplace TV receives its greatest interface replace in years, rolling out to Fireplace TV Stick 4K units and Omni Mini-LED TVs this spring with redesigned navigation and rounder icons.
- PCWorld notes the replace removes favourite and recently-used app rows, consolidates all apps right into a single scrollable row, and splits distant button capabilities in an unintuitive means.
- Key enhancements embrace higher stay TV information filtering and in-content settings entry, although sponsored content material and banner advertisements stay distinguished all through the interface. Detailed directions are supplied beneath.
In case your Fireplace TV dwelling display screen out of the blue seems to be totally different, you’re not alone.
Final month, Amazon began rolling out its greatest Fireplace TV replace in years, with rounder icons and a few large navigation adjustments. Whereas the launch has been gradual, it appears to have picked up velocity this previous week based mostly on what I’m listening to from readers and seeing alone units.
The brand new dwelling display screen is arriving first on the most recent Fireplace TV Stick 4K Plus and 4K Max streaming gamers, together with Amazon’s Fireplace TV Omni Mini-LED TVs. Help for extra streaming gamers and TVs is coming this spring.
Whereas the brand new dwelling display screen is an enchancment total, it’s additionally in some methods a step backwards. Both means, it takes some getting used to, as quite a lot of options have modified, moved, or disappeared.
Your apps have moved
Amazon is ditching the higher app row the place you can pin as much as six favourite apps. It additionally removed the “Just lately-used” app row a bit additional down the display screen.
As an alternative, all of your apps will seem in a single row, a number of clicks down from the highest navigation bar. You may transfer or uninstall them by long-pressing the Choose button, however there’s no strategy to organize them by recency. You can also’t spotlight your apps anymore to see suggestions from them.
The brand new nav bar
With the higher app row gone, Amazon has additionally moved the menu choices that when sat subsequent to them.
These choices now seem in an expanded navigation bar on the prime of the display screen. The outdated Residence, Stay, and Search choices are all up there, together with shortcuts to Motion pictures, TV Exhibits, Information, and Sports activities. These sections aren’t solely new, however Amazon beforehand buried them deeper down in its menu system. (Amazon may additionally present time-limited sections right here as properly, like the present one for March Insanity.)
Sadly, the brand new design demotes the “My Stuff” part (together with your watchlist and purchases) from the nav bar solely. You’ll discover it by clicking the menu button in your distant.
New button habits
With the outdated Fireplace TV design, long-pressing the Residence button gave you shortcuts to issues just like the profile selector and settings menu, whereas the Menu button confirmed fast choices for the at the moment highlighted dwelling display screen merchandise. Now, Amazon has unusually break up totally different settings between these two buttons:
- Residence button long-press: Show and audio settings, sleep timer, good dwelling controls, accessibility settings.
- Menu button: Profile selector, Appstore, Video games retailer, My Stuff menu, good dwelling controls (once more), settings shortcut.
I do like that the Residence button long-press now works inside content material, so you’ll be able to tweak show settings or management issues like dialog enhancement with out going again to the house display screen. Nonetheless, the Menu button would make extra sense for these options to me, and the break up between Residence and Menu capabilities feels unintuitive.
Jared Newman / Foundry
In the meantime, long-pressing the Choose button now accomplishes what the menu button used to do. You should utilize this to maneuver or uninstall apps, add gadgets to your watchlist, and take away gadgets from the “Proceed Watching” row.
Barely much less annoying advertisements and trailers
Sadly, the Fireplace TV dwelling display screen nonetheless prominently options sponsored content material in its prime carousel and an enormous banner advert additional down the house display screen. Amazon continues to make use of these areas for advertisements that don’t have anything to do with leisure, resembling snacks and skincare merchandise.
However the replace does deliver one refined enchancment: Clicking up from the beginning place on the house display screen not pulls down a full-screen video for no matter Amazon’s promoting. You’ll nonetheless see these trailers should you linger too lengthy on the “Watch” or “Be taught Extra” buttons, however at the very least they’re more durable to invoke by chance.
Adverts don’t increase like this except you hover on the “Be taught Extra” button for a second or two.
Jared Newman / Foundry
As at all times, you’ll be able to (and will) forestall these advertisements from auto-playing by heading to Settings > Preferences > Featured Content material, then turning off each “Permit Video Autoplay” and “Permit Audio Autoplay.”
Miscellaneous adjustments
Another issues I’ve observed whereas evaluating the brand new and outdated Fireplace TV dwelling screens:
- There’s not any strategy to view your entire put in apps in a grid menu, so that you’re primarily anticipated to make use of that one lengthy app row on the house display screen now.
- Fireplace TV’s stay TV information not requires additional clicks to see its numerous filtering choices, and it additionally recommends some stay channels on the prime of the grid.
- The Motion pictures and TV Exhibits sections not have a “Free to Me” filter, which solely confirmed content material from free providers or your subscriptions. Too dangerous.
- The Appstore not has a devoted video games filter. Click on the Menu button in your distant and head to the Video games part as a substitute.
- To place your Fireplace TV machine to sleep, it’s finest to simply hit the distant’s energy button, however you’ll be able to nonetheless do it by means of software program by long-pressing Residence, heading to Sleep Timers, and choosing “Sleep Now.”
What’s nonetheless annoying
In the meantime, a few of my longstanding gripes with the Fireplace TV interface stay unaddressed:
- You continue to can’t management which streaming providers feed into the Fireplace TV’s dwelling display screen suggestions. Google TV has been letting customers do that for years. This isn’t laborious to do; Amazon simply doesn’t care sufficient to offer customers a modicum of company.
- There’s nonetheless no fast, glanceable indication of which streaming service a advice belongs to on the house display screen. As an alternative you need to spotlight every merchandise and look ahead to that info to load.
- You continue to can’t conceal or reject Fireplace TV’s dwelling display screen suggestions, like these within the “Subsequent up for you” row.
General, I like the brand new Fireplace TV dwelling display screen higher than the outdated one. It makes your full app record simpler to succeed in, offers the “Proceed Watching” row extra visible prominence, and provides in-video entry to show settings and dialog enhancement. The rounder icons additionally simply look a bit much less utilitarian.
Nonetheless, it’s no much less a reminder that your worth to Amazon just isn’t in what you pay for the Fireplace TV {hardware}, however in what else it may possibly promote you now that you just’ve purchased it.
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