Amazon today announced their new Fire TV Blaster — an infrared device that gives customers voice control of their cable boxes, TVs and soundbars when they’re paired with an Echo with Fire TV. If it sounds familiar, that’s because it gives customers with Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Stick 4K and Fire TV (3rd Gen) a lot of the power of the Fire TV Cube.
With the Fire TV Blaster, people can turn a channel on their TVs by saying, “Alexa, tune to ESPN on cable,” or turn off the TV by simply requesting, “Alexa, turn off the TV.”
At $34.99, Amazon said the Fire TV Blaster offers an affordable option to customers who want more voice control over their living room devices and already have an Echo device. And since the Fire TV Blaster can control multiple devices, there will no longer be the need to keep multiple remote controls on the couch. Again, the Fire TV Blaster is a companion device that is used in conjunction with an Echo with Fire TV.
The Fire TV Blaster will be available for pre-order in the US, Canada, United Kingdom and Germany starting today. The device will begin shipping on December 11th.
In September, Amazon announced a major update to their Fire TV Cube device, which combines a Fire TV and Echo device all-in-one. At $119.99, it’s more expensive than a Fire TV Stick, plus Fire TV Blaster — but comes with the major benefit of not needing a separate Echo device.
The latest update to the Fire TV Cube added a hexa-core processor — which, according to Amazon, is more than twice as fast as the original Fire TV Cube. The device can stream 4K UHD at 60 FPS, with support for HDR, HRD10+, Dolby Vision, as well as Dolby Atmos audio.