Amazon Fire TV Cube – A Magical Device!

The Amazon Fire TV Cube is the most amazing device I have touched since the original iPhone. When the original iPhone came out, I watched Steve Jobs stand on stage and tell us about this amazing device. I knew the world had changed forever because of what Steve Jobs was holding in his hand.

I remember standing in line and waiting to get my iPhone at the Apple Store. It took a few hours, and it was worth the wait. I loved my first iPhone, it changed the way I operated with the world. It had issues of course, but it was a game changer, and it felt magical.

The Amazon Fire TV Cube gives me the exact same feeling. It is a game-changing product that has quietly shown up on the scene. It is remarkable and I would go so far as to say it is magical. In fact, so magical it left me sitting in wonder at what I had just installed in my family room.

This all began with a discussion with a co-worker Dave. He installed the Cube in his home and was telling me how great it was. We had a company holiday party and we decided to travel together to the party so it gave me a chance to see the Fire TV Cube in action at his home.

It is a small square box, sitting on his equipment console. The picture on his massive TV looked amazing and he operated all of his equipment from this tiny remote. When it was time to turn the TV off he simply stated “Alexa, Turn TV Off”. That was it. Boring, right?

Dave has a ton of equipment. He has a receiver, and speakers all over the room, and his TV. I asked him how hard it was to set up and he said it was simple and only took a few minutes. What?

I still didn’t really understand what I was looking at, but I wanted to give Amazon TV Cube a shot. Now I have been working with tech since 1978, but I have not done any home automation. I don’t have any voice assistants in the house, outside of what is on my phone or computer, and I have been happy with that decision.

The Amazon Fire TV Cube does bring the Alexa voice assistant into your home. You could get the new Fire Stick and avoid that if you don’t want Alexa, but there is also a microphone button on the top of the Cube if you don’t want Alexa to listen to you.

I ordered the Amazon Fire TV Cube from Amazon. I received the package in two days was excited to open it up. It was packaged like they cared…almost Apple-like in the packaging. The instructions were simple.

• Plug the Cube in.
• Make sure the TV is on the right HDMI input.
• Hit the Home button on the remote

Pairing remote showed up on screen. Setting up TV. OK…cool. Do you have a sound bar? Yes, I do. What kind? Mine happens to be a Taotronics, and this is where I thought for sure I would stump them. My Taotronics soundbar is plugged into my TV, Bluetooth is off, so the only communication can come through the TV. I select Taotronics, and it instantly reported back, soundbar set up. What?

That was it! I went from two remotes, TV and soundbar, to one remote.

The process was super simple. I can’t emphasis enough how easy this was, and how magical it felt. To plug in a device and have it handle setup without complication is magical.

I loved it so much that I went out and purchased a second for another TV. This TV didn’t have a soundbar so setup was literally, plug it in, and it reported back, setup is complete.

I have one more remote to remove, and I decided, again because of Dave’s house, to go with PlayStation Vue. I will discuss that in another article.

If you are looking to simplify your life and get down to one remote. If you want to feel magical, and if you want to simply turn your TV on and off with your voice, then get an Amazon Fire TV Cube. It is truly a magical device!