Amazon Fire TV device will be remotely removed in a matter of weeks and no longer work
Amazon plan to shut them all down remotely
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Amazon Fire TV customers who've bought a specific device have been told that in the coming weeks it will 'stop working', and that will be the end of that.
The Fire TV Blaster is a gizmo that emits infrared signals to your TV and soundbar allowing a person to add hands-free voice control, basically allowing you to boss your TV around with Alexa.
It provided a cheaper option to do this than the Fire TV Cube, assuming you already had an Echo speaker to pick up your voice, but the device seemingly didn't catch on in a big way.
AFTV News reported that the Blaster didn't have many consumer ratings, indicating relatively low sales, and that the reviews for it were middling as people found it to be a rather niche product with a fiddly setup.
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However, for those who did buy the gadget and may still use it, they've been sent an email from Amazon.
Amazon have already stopped selling the Blaster so you can't get new ones any longer, but in their email they made it clear 'support for the Fire TV Blaster will be discontinued and the device will stop working'.
Support for the Blaster is coming to an end starting from 31 January as Amazon believe the device has served its purpose in allowing people with older TVs to use voice control, but given more modern products they've seen a diminished need for the Blaster itself.
Depending on whereabouts in the world you are the message Amazon has sent you will be offering something different.
Customers in the UK will be getting a refund for their purchase in the form of £34.99 worth of Amazon gift cards automatically added to their account within 24 hours with no action needed.
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Over in the US there is no refund, instead their offer is the one in the message that can be seen above where they are being offered an exclusive discount on a Fire TV Cube, the more expensive Amazon product which has all the functions the Blaster has.
Wherever you are it's clear there's going to be no going back to the Blaster, people will soon have to do without it or replace it with a different Fire TV device.
Amazon isn't going to go round to everyone's house and take their devices, meaning the Blaster is going to be bricked remotely and rendered unusable in the near future.
It does show that Amazon is able to switch off your devices remotely and leave them a chunk of scrap that won't work again, something consumers might want to be cautious of when making their purchases.
There's been quite a few changes for folks who watch TV via Amazon devices lately, as the latest round of crackdowns on dodgy Fire Sticks has resulted in warnings and threats of fines of as much as £50,000.
That's because Sky are going after people who use dodgy devices to illegally stream their content under Section 11 of the 2006 Fraud Act.
Amazon have also been sending messages to people who've got untoward programs loaded onto their devices where the apps can still be accessed but the option to uninstall them is there.
However, that's the first part of a two-step move and the second is expected to be a new warning message which blocks you from launching the app at all with your only option to uninstall it.
Amazon have said in a statement saying they would 'block apps identified as providing access to pirated content', so expect changes to come.
Topics: Amazon, Technology, TV
Joe Harker