Amazon to Offer Fire TV Stick Basic Edition Without Alexa to Over 100 Countries
Amazon has announced that its digital media player, Fire TV Stick, will soon be available in over 100 countries.
According to Gadgets, the new Fire TV Stick Basic Edition will not contain its Alexa voice assistant support, but is nearly identical to the original. It will reportedly go on sale at $49.99, a bit more expensive than the regular Fire TV Stick, but Amazon will be offering free shipping to eligible countries.
Previously, the media player was only available in India and a few other markets. Now, those who are living in Canada, France, Italy, Spain, and other countries on the list will get to avail the product.
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The Fire TV Stick is a media streaming device that is plugged into the television's HDMI port. Depending on what is available in each country, it will allow users to stream over Wi-Fi in 1080p quality for Amazon Original TV shows and movies, as well as other video content, including Netflix and YouTube. The default menu language may be set to Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, German, or English.
Introduced to the Indian market in April, the player is equipped with a quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage. Its High-Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) allows for a streaming capability of up to 60 frames per second (FPS) with Dolby Audio. The dongle also comes with a basic Bluetooth remote. As mentioned, the Basic Edition will not include the Alexa, the voice-based feature that allows access to the device.
"Last year, we made Amazon Prime Video available to customers globally, and today, we're building on that momentum as we introduce Fire TV Stick Basic Edition to new customers around the world. This makes streaming content from apps like Prime Video fast and easy and we can't wait to hear what customers think," said Marc Whitten, Vice President, Amazon Fire TV.
