Take a deep dive into the world of Fire TV
By: Paul Mcfedries
Tags: Alexa, TV, Fire Tv, Tıp

Take a deep dive into the world of Fire TV

I write technical books for a living. In fact, I’ve written a lot of technical books, nearly 100 in all, covering topics such as Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Access, JavaScript and web design, and macOS and Windows. The weird thing is that I don’t think of myself as a technical writer. Sure, I describe myself that way at cocktail parties (if asked!), but I think of myself as something closer to a teacher — my approach to writing about technology has always been about helping people use that technology to make their lives easier, more productive, or more creative.

So, when the opportunity came my way to write a book about Amazon Fire TV, I leapt at the chance. Why? Because I can’t tell you how many times over the past few years I have been asked to explain streaming media, recommend streaming media devices, or help with someone’s streaming media setup. Streaming movies and television shows is the future of entertainment and everyone wants a chance to watch that Prime Video series or Netflix show that everyone’s talking about on social media.

The challenge is that there are so many new services available, with even more on the horizon, that it’s tough to keep up with what’s new while also managing the content we know and love. At the end of a long workday, the last thing we want to wrestle with is finding how and where to stream our favorite show. Many solutions promise to ease the burden, but I’ve always thought Fire TV offered the best combination of broad coverage and straightforward technology. Write a book about it? You bet I will!

Ah, but does the world really need a book about Fire TV? Call me biased, but I believe it does. Yes, Fire TV is easy to learn, but it’s also surprisingly deep, with tons of features, techniques, and settings that can turn an average streaming experience into an extraordinary one. My book — which, by the way, is called Amazon Fire TV for Dummies — takes you through these features, step by step.

Want some examples? I thought you might:

Take advantage of free content. Most streaming media services require a monthly payment to access their content, but there are plenty of options out there that offer content for free (except, in most cases, the “charge” of viewing a few ads). Depending on where you live, you can check out services such as IMDb TV and Tubi.

YouTube is Fire TV-friendly. Speaking of free content, everyone’s favorite source for cat videos and the latest memes — YouTube — has its own Fire TV app that you can use to view your favorite YouTube content right on your TV.

Fire TV mobile app keyboard. If you need to enter lots of text in the Fire TV interface, often the easiest method is to use the Fire TV mobile app to connect to your Fire TV device, then tap the app’s Keyboard icon to bring up the onscreen keyboard.

Alexa Voice Remote text entry. If you need to enter lots of text, but the Fire TV app isn’t handy, you can still use the Fire TV remote, but you’ll want to keep these techniques in mind:

Press Fast Forward to enter a space.

Press Rewind to delete the most recent character.

In keypads that support both lowercase and uppercase letters, press Menu to toggle the keyboard’s letters between lowercase and uppercase.

In keypads where you have to confirm your text entry, press Play/Pause to choose the confirmation button.

In keypads that offer a Cancel button, press Back to choose that button.

Add an external USB storage drive. Fire TV comes with its own internal storage, but if you augment that storage with an external USB hard drive or flash drive, then you get some significant advantages, including more storage for apps and games; the option to move some apps from internal to external storage; and a longer live TV recording buffer, which gives you more options for pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding live TV (and the larger the storage device you add, the longer the resulting live TV recording buffer). Alternatively, you can use the external drive to display photos or play videos and music files on your Fire TV device. Best of all, you can add a USB storage drive in just three straightforward steps:

Plug the USB drive into a power outlet (if required) and then connect the drive to a USB port on your Fire TV device.

Once Fire TV recognizes your device, choose either Device Storage (to format the drive for exclusive use of Fire TV) or External Storage (to format the drive in a way that also enables you to add media, such as photos and videos, to the USB drive).

When Fire TV asks you to confirm, choose Yes to format the drive, and then choose OK.

Browse the web on Fire TV. Just getting easy access to your favorite streaming content makes Fire TV worth the price, but did you know that you can also turn your big-screen TV into a web-browsing playground? You can because Fire TV ships with not one, but two web browsers: Amazon’s Silk browser and Mozilla’s Firefox.

Parental Controls. Create a five-digit PIN that prevents kids from launching Fire TV apps or making purchases via Fire TV. You can also restrict Amazon Video content based on ratings.

If you haven’t yet made the switch to Fire TV, or if you’re thinking of giving the gift of Fire TV over the holidays, here are some guidelines to consider:

Whichever route you take into the world of Fire TV, be sure to also bring along a copy of Amazon Fire TV for Dummies. You’ll be glad you did.