Yet another smart product is headed for the scrapheap, and this time it’s an Amazon Fire TV device that lets you control your home entertainment components with voice commands—or at least, that’s what it used to do.
First announced back in 2019, the Amazon Fire TV Blaster will “stop working” in the “coming weeks,” according to an Amazon customer support email shared by AFTVnews.
Reached by TechHive, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the Fire TV Blaster will lose support on January 31.
Amazon is offering an “exclusive” $60 discount to Fire TV Blaster owners for the Fire TV Cube, a more powerful version of the Blaster that comes with built-in Alexa and a $139.99 price tag, making its final price $79.99 for those who take Amazon up on the offer.
Another option for Fire TV Blaster owners is to get a new Fire TV streaming player—albeit one without hand-free Alexa functionality—for half-off.
As the Fire TV Blaster originally retailed for just $35, out-of-luck owners are now left in the position of either paying more than double for a new Fire TV Cube that’s capable of the Blaster’s hands-free Alexa functionality, or opting for a less expensive Fire TV stick that isn’t.
The Fire TV Blaster gets its name from its ability to blast IR commands to such common living-room components as TVs, soundbars, A/V receivers, and similar home entertainment devices.
With the Fire TV Blaster connected to an Echo speaker, you could say things like “Alexa, switch to HDMI 1 on TV,” and the Blaster would beam the appropriate IR command to your TV set.
At just $35, the Fire TV Blaster made for a nifty and inexpensive way to add smarts and voice capabilities to your dumb home theater components.
But like too many other smart devices we’ve seen, the Fire TV Blaster is about to become a paperweight, with the Amazon email including instructions on how to recycle the soon-to-be-useless gadget, along with a link to a free shipping label.
Of course, there is the Fire TV Cube, a supercharged version of the Fire TV Blaster with built-in Alexa—including Alexa+ support—along with HDMI passthrough and much more powerful internal hardware.
Besides being way more expensive, though, the Fire TV Cube also comes saddled with the Fire TV interface, which our reviewer deemed to be “too cumbersome, with too many sponsored listings, banner ads, and extraneous menu items getting in the way.”
This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best media streaming devices. Updated shortly after publication with more details from Amazon.