I spent some time this weekend with My Fire TV playing with Amazon’s new “Fling” capability via the Karaoke party app for IOS. I found the performance a little laggy but for a first example it functioned quite well. What Amazon is doing is very interesting. While Amazon already offered a number of apps that allow for mirroring and Airplay like functionality this development puts Amazon on a different level from a device standpoint. We have some questions

Fire TV Is An Android device
Yes Fire TV technically runs on its own OS but it is an Android device and with the company already gearing up for a

jump to Lollipop or Android 5.0 it should not be difficult to integrate the already existing protocol into the background. Can’t it extend the same support it offers to YouTube users to other apps? Will Google let Amazon use the protocol in the same way that they allow Android TV branded devices including the Nexus Player and Nvidia Shield as well as of course the Chromecast dongle?. Does Amazon want to chart a separate course and have something branded? I just can’t help but think that it will take more time for the new protocol to be integrated into a great number of apps. But once the developers buy in and I’m sure they will Amazon will be in position to put a hurting on the competition.

Huge Expansion of it app support
This is going to open the Fire TV and Fire TV stick to a whole new world of App availability. If developers from popular apps begin to work Amazon’s code into their apps it will mean that Fire TV customers will be able to

integrate all of their favorite apps into one source.

Bad Bad News for Chromecast

While a number of reports are calling this Amazon’s Airplay I think of it as something else. This move is aimed directly at the Chromecast. As of right now the Fire TV stick is the number one selling streaming media device on the website, but right behind it is the Chromecast. If Amazon is able to convince app makers to put the functionality into their apps in a hurry think about what that could do to the $35.00 dongle. The Chromecast has been popular since it’s release because of its price, portability and minimal hassle as far as interface and controllers go, because it has neither. Once the top apps in either the IOS and Google Play app store are available for Fire TV users they will have less reason to buy a Chromecast than ever before.

Take a look at Your Fully Functional Super Dongle
Think about it like this. Amazon could roll out a specs list like this.
1. Full Interface
2. Controller optional Voice Remote
3. Game Support
4. Controller app with voice support
5. Dual core processor (same power as Roku 3) (twice the power of Apple TV)

6. Miracast support
7. $39.00 Pricetag
* Unofficially very easy to sideload Kodi and numerous other apps

Compare to the Chromecast
Cast Support for hundreds of IOS and Android apps
Mirror Chrome Tabs from Mac, WIndows and Chromebook through the Google Cast extension for Chrome
Android Phone and Tablet Mirroring
$35.00

Amazon Device Updates coming
When you pair the rollout of Fling with the credible rumors of a new device on the way Amazon looks to be gearing up to turn the volume to 11 on the competition. The company has been adding apps to the Fire TV platform left and right over the past year and now offers over 1700 apps including some unavailable for Roku and far more than the Android TV and Apple TV platform. The full Fire TV set-top box already sports a quad core processor, support for a number of console style video games, voice control remote, and of course access to all of Amazon’s services likely including shopping soon. Throw in added hardware specs like the ones we speculated about in a recent article and the device could put itself in position to be the ultimate streaming device going into the holidays.