Develop Bugs

[Q] Porting Android TV to Amazon Fire TV

Does anyone know how this can be done?

Not yet. AFAIK android tv isn't released.
The fact of the custom recovery doesn't get around the locked bootloader, either. There are approaches to the problem which have been used on other devices, but last I looked this device was rootable (in its early generation) but not yet upgradeable.

roustabout said:
Not yet. AFAIK android tv isn't released.
The fact of the custom recovery doesn't get around the locked bootloader, either. There are approaches to the problem which have been used on other devices, but last I looked this device was rootable (in its early generation) but not yet upgradeable.
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its just getting someone with the know how and want to take it on. Someone has ported it to the ouya.. the port uses cm11 as a base then u flash the android tv package over top, i read its buggy as heck tho and a wip to get things functioning.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/ouya/general/rom-android-tv-ouya-t2895293

nhumber said:
its just getting someone with the know how and want to take it on. Someone has ported it to the ouya.. the port uses cm11 as a base then u flash the android tv package over top, i read its buggy as heck tho and a wip to get things functioning.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/ouya/general/rom-android-tv-ouya-t2895293
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I did try a quick and dirty port of ADT-1 and it was a massive failure. I may take a look at this at some point.

nhumber said:
its just getting someone with the know how and want to take it on. Someone has ported it to the ouya.. the port uses cm11 as a base then u flash the android tv package over top, i read its buggy as heck tho and a wip to get things functioning.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/ouya/general/rom-android-tv-ouya-t2895293
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buggy as heck and wip - and on a device with an unlockable bootloader and a lot of folks who bought via kickstarter intending to mod it.
no disrespect to the folks who are working their butts off on the ftv, but you rarely
get a solid cm11 daily driver even with an unlocked device right away, with only one dev working - and that's with cm, where there are a lot of good build guides and a userbase ready to help test and get logs.
with the ftv, look at the number of folks complaining about xbmc on the box.
xbmc works extremely well and with root makes a viable launcher replacement. its my launcher on the system, and I'm beyond pleased with it, given that the system is completely different in use than what the vendor intended.
does it get stuck now and again? yep.
I paid how much for xbmc? for root?
some of the tone here would be fine in a vendor's support forums, but posting about how there's trial and error and glitches in a dev forum?
now, think how much fun it'd be to have a wip rom posted here and need to patiently wade through folks acting like they were entitled to bug-free consumer grade software at no cost and with zero elbow grease involved in setting it up...

No tones or complaining here.. Just was answering the question. Is it possible? Yes. How? I stated how it was done on the ouya. The unlocked bootloader is irrelevant since we have a workaround from rbox, who I'm greatly appreciative of.

Boot Loader

Hello all,
Given that Amazon has just slashed the price on what is in reality a powerful phone, what is the likelihood that we could see an unlocked bootloader (from the community) in the near future. CM would really make this phone fly.

I got the Fire Phone, as it was a $100 for me (i consider the 99$ amazon prime that comes with it, like renewing my existing one that expires on Jan 1st anyway).
As an excited developer, I actually am planning to devote time to trying to flash Custom Recoveries (or at least boot them), and getting Android Lollipop on it. Those are my 2 goals. I have no clue if I will achieve them, as this is my first strong attempt at making something custom, but I will try. I have android 5.0 and fireos sources downloaded. I will try to pull all the system level stuff on my phone from it (incase I need drivers or something), and take a stab. If I can get Lollipop stock working, I will then move to CM 12 and do that.
My goal is for 5.x support. If I can pull it off, I don't want to foray into anything less than Android 5.0.
Wish me luck.
As for bootloader unlock, I haven't checked, but it might be as simple as fastboot oem unlock. Here's to hoping.

Great to hear! Thank you for dedicating your time, I am hopping after end of this semester I will be able to join in this endeavor.
Best of luck!

funkybassplayer said:
Great to hear! Thank you for dedicating your time, I am hopping after end of this semester I will be able to join in this endeavor.
Best of luck!
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Just a heads up, the bootloader is locked down pretty tight. Unlocking it will require finding and using an exploit. there is a guy on the HDX forum that found an exploit for that Tablet that would work for the Fire Phone, but he decided for legal reasons to not release it anywhere, so both devices are in limbo. Wish i knew even at which exploit to look into and I would do the rest myself.

if it is locked so tight, what is the point of giving away as open source

Daegalus said:
As for bootloader unlock, I haven't checked, but it might be as simple as fastboot oem unlock. Here's to hoping.
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lol, you must be joking.

dimex said:
lol, you must be joking.
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Umm, no, not at the time of that post. If you read the post i made after that, you would have seen that I actually checked and found out it wasn't the case. Way to jump the gun.

Daegalus said:
Umm, no, not at the time of that post. If you read the post i made after that, you would have seen that I actually checked and found out it wasn't the case. Way to jump the gun.
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If it was as simple as a 'fastboot oem unlock' we wouldn't be here half a year later discussing this to begin with. All I'm saying, of course that wasn't going to work.

Glad you're attempting this. If I can help, please let me know. Unless people smarter than me can unlock the bootloader, you might be creating one great virtual machine that won't make it to this nice piece of hardware.
I bought this phone to learn more about the same things you plan to do. I dislike the fireos (and the glitches in the use of the side-loaded gapps) enough to return the phone, but the cheap price, dreaming of a decent OTA update in January, and folks like you working on it makes me think I'll hang on to it as a backup.

I just got a fire phone as well. Hope this forum will get more traction as Amazon release its FireOS source...

"My name is 4.1chan, I will hack this device because I am great developer. Trust me, I took a Jawa class in Kindergarten and passed."
Seriously though, can't see this happening any time soon. You need experienced people, not someone who says they can do it even though they don't even know the boot loader is locked like Ford Knox. Big talk has always led to big disappointment in my experience on xda-developers. Don't get your hopes up, the phone is basically rubbish as it is (even more with simlock), so don't just buy because it is cheap.

Agreed, I am not expecting much on the unlocking front. If it happens great, if not oh well. But I would not call this phone rubbish, it's fast cheap and runs everything I need perfectly. Sure it doesn't have that perfect Android feel, but who cares. Plus the auto scroll feature is pretty handy.

The phone's spec is great for the $200 unlocked price but NO ROM, NO BUY MAN.

funkybassplayer said:
Agreed, I am not expecting much on the unlocking front. If it happens great, if not oh well. But I would not call this phone rubbish, it's fast cheap and runs everything I need perfectly. Sure it doesn't have that perfect Android feel, but who cares. Plus the auto scroll feature is pretty handy.
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Agreed! An excellent phone for $100! Can't beat that price. Runs what I need as well once you install Google framework, services and play store.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app

*sigh* nevermind, I just leave this here, since THIS is a thread about the bootloader (thanks for trying, Mod. ^^)
Viperise152 said:
http://www.xda-developers.com/kindle-fire-hd-6-and-7-receive-bootloader-unlock-and-twrp/
Will this help us Fire Phone users?
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Eiermann78 said:
I already tried this and CuberHDX.py, too but it fails with Unlock Code is NOT correct
Maybe the Steps would be right, but i don´t know how to figure out the correct code for the fire phone.
Tested at Fire OS 3.5 and 4.6.1
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@ Viperise152 & Eggmän78 Sadly: No, it won't help. The unlock for the 6" and 7" is based on the HDX bootloader unlock method. This vuln. was already fixed for the FirePhone by Amazon.

New root exploit soon?

https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/117742/
There's no exploit example, but maybe there's a new hope for getting root on the Fire TV Stick and newer Fire TVs. Can anyone confirm the Fire TV has the vulnerable code?

This is very exciting! Crossing my fingers!

Oh boy. This one is BIG. If the Fire TV uses this library, it's just a matter of time.
http://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2015-1474/

Exciting news!!!

Sizzlechest said:
Oh boy. This one is BIG. If the Fire TV uses this library, it's just a matter of time.
http://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2015-1474/
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But if I read this right this affects only 5.0 devices. And AFTV is not 5.0 AFAIK.

Ultraschorsch said:
But if I read this right this affects only 5.0 devices. And AFTV is not 5.0 AFAIK.
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You didn't read it right. It affects 5.0 and below.

Sizzlechest said:
You didn't read it right. It affects 5.0 and below.
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Yes, I read through the Android 4.4 sourcecode. The bug is already there. Unfortunately I am no CXX and security expert, so I hope someone else writes an exploit. Should not be too hard.

Not to discount any other dev, but rbox seems to be the guy that would know if its poossible. He seems to be the man when it comes to the Fire TV. Why not just ask rbox? He can probably give you a straight foward answer and you wouldn't have to speculate anymore. Just ask rbox, cause I am pretty sure he would know if it would work.

porkenhimer said:
Not to discount any other dev, but rbox seems to be the guy that would know if its poossible. He seems to be the man when it comes to the Fire TV. Why not just ask rbox? He can probably give you a straight foward answer and you wouldn't have to speculate anymore. Just ask rbox, cause I am pretty sure he would know if it would work.
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You mention @rbox so many times, but you don't really mention him at the same time. Want his attention? Mention @rbox

its still not going to fix the efuse. amazon really lost my support when that happened.. fireTV is a bedroom box now and i've moved to the 100$ M8 amlogic box running openelec.. if you want something for pure XBMC this is a much better option and fully supports different refresh rates.

Right it won't fix the efuse but I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one still using the old firmware without efuse and hoping for software root...

gamer765 said:
You mention @rbox so many times, but you don't really mention him at the same time. Want his attention? Mention @rbox
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I do not want his attention at all. I was simply informing people that if they wanna a quick reliable answer that rbox would probably be the one to ask. I have said several times that I could care less about rooting my Fire TV. I just know how these threads pan out, they usually end up in arguements over wheather or not its possible, so I was trying to give them a quick solution to their question. If they wanna now if its possible they could probably get an answer from rbox and there would be no more speculation and nobody would have to eventually get mad when someone says it won't work. He is a reliable source so why wouldn't they wanna ask him? If I mention him it means I mentioned him period. Yes I mentiond him, cause without a doubt he is probably considered the top dev for the Fire TV. No harm in mentioning him or trying to point people in the right direction to ge an answer. If they ask him today and he responds with a definative answer today, they have their answer and there will be no more wondering.

From what I read, this alone isn't enough to gain root. You need to combine this with other exploit(s) to get it. I've read that there is a forthcoming proof of concept that uses it. So we just have to wait and see. But... hope is not lost totally for people with the fire tv with the fuse blown. Before I had the unlock working, I was working on safestrap for the fire tv. Safestrap allows you to boot to recovery with a locked bootloader. So if this results in root for the newer firetvs with the blown fuse, making a safestrap package is a possibility. No promises on when or if it would actually happen. As for that happening with the stick... highly unlikely (from me) because it's a completely different architecture from the Fire TV.

rbox said:
From what I read, this alone isn't enough to gain root. You need to combine this with other exploit(s) to get it. I've read that there is a forthcoming proof of concept that uses it. So we just have to wait and see. But... hope is not lost totally for people with the fire tv with the fuse blown. Before I had the unlock working, I was working on safestrap for the fire tv. Safestrap allows you to boot to recovery with a locked bootloader. So if this results in root for the newer firetvs with the blown fuse, making a safestrap package is a possibility. No promises on when or if it would actually happen. As for that happening with the stick... highly unlikely (from me) because it's a completely different architecture from the Fire TV.
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RBox, thanks for chiming in. Many of us are hoping for a FireTV Stick root. I guess we'll have to wait and see like you said. Hopefully we'll hear something soon! Any particular forum we can keep an eye on besides this one?

E--Man said:
RBox, thanks for chiming in. Many of us are hoping for a FireTV Stick root. I guess we'll have to wait and see like you said. Hopefully we'll hear something soon! Any particular forum we can keep an eye on besides this one?
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I had googled the CVE number and found a thread on one of the samsung forums here that they were discussing it.

E--Man said:
RBox, thanks for chiming in. Many of us are hoping for a FireTV Stick root. I guess we'll have to wait and see like you said. Hopefully we'll hear something soon! Any particular forum we can keep an eye on besides this one?
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This thread is full of Samsung Note 4 users salivating for a new root exploit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-att/general/galaxy-note-4-root-progress-t2961974/page111

Sizzlechest said:
This thread is full of Samsung Note 4 users salivating for a new root exploit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-att/general/galaxy-note-4-root-progress-t2961974/page111
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Ahh yes, because the AT&T ones come with a locked Bootloader I heard about that... They (we) all deserve it too because we paid for the device!
If the method to root is similar *and* it is possible, then its just a matter of time...

Watch defy. Closed bootloader is sad.
But no Problem at all.
2nd init is long time happened
We need the right dev.
Quarks is the superman
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app

E--Man said:
Ahh yes, because the AT&T ones come with a locked Bootloader I heard about that... They (we) all deserve it too because we paid for the device!
If the method to root is similar *and* it is possible, then its just a matter of time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just because you buy a device does not mean that you deserve to be able to do something that the makers of it never intended it to do. Its like someone goin out and buying an RX7 and saying it deserves to go faster than a Lambo. Any mildly intelligent person would have never bought the Mazda if they wanted it to outrun a Lambo, cause they would know ahead of time its not made to outrun a Lambo. I can understand why people wanna root. I even have rooted devices, but to get mad because you cannot root a device makes zero sense. You knew Amazon did not want you to root it before you bought it, so why complain now? You deserve many things in life simply by being human, but a rooted Fire TV is not on the list of things that anyone deserves. Look at it like this, if root never comes too the newer firmwares, you will forget about when you buy your next device. I must admit I was kinda irked when I read that some Fire TVs cannot be rooted, but i took my chances and bought it anyway, and now I have a nonrootable device, and its absoluely not a big deal. I knew ahead of time what I was getting into and if I get root one day that will be fine, but if I don't I am still fine wiith that too. My Fire TV does everything I need it to do without root so its really not a big deal. I have noticed after I got a little older that the alure of cool apps and cool mods have worn away. I no longer care how cool my Android devices look or what cool tweaks I can use, I simply just want a device that does what its supposed to do. I have done so much "cool stuff" on Android devices that I am actually burnt out. I don't even carry my cell anymore. I have a Galaxy Note that has never been outside except for when UPS dropped it off. Trust me, not having root for your Android device is not gonna have any negative effects on your life if it does not happen.

porkenhimer said:
Just because you buy a device does not mean that you deserve to be able to do something that the makers of it never intended it to do. Its like someone goin out and buying an RX7 and saying it deserves to go faster than a Lambo. Any mildly intelligent person would have never bought the Mazda if they wanted it to outrun a Lambo, cause they would know ahead of time its not made to outrun a Lambo.
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That is a terrible example. Since we buy the devices we should be able to do what we want with them, similar with cars. We buy cars and since we bought them, we can customize them as we wish. Last I checked, there was nothing in place from stopping me from popping the hood open and doing what I wish with the engine or interior.
Your poor example is akin to saying I bought a cheap outdated phone like an Alcatel and saying it deserves to be faster than an HTC One M8. Learn to troll better.

Should I update to latest firmware?

My AFTV has remained on 51.1.3.0 as i have blocked the amazon from router to not update the device.
My only concern is Kodi, nothing else. Should I release the updates and update to the latest amazon official, or should I keep this version in hopes that soon the root will come and playing Kodi on AFTV is never gonna be a Amazon decision.
Thanks

hormosapiens said:
My AFTV has remained on 51.1.3.0 as i have blocked the amazon from router to not update the device.
My only concern is Kodi, nothing else. Should I release the updates and update to the latest amazon official, or should I keep this version in hopes that soon the root will come and playing Kodi on AFTV is never gonna be a Amazon decision.
Thanks
Click to expand...
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In general, that's not a huge concern for most people, at least over going on a year of reading forums on aftv. I guess there's always the fear but it doesn't look like amazon is going to block kodi. Plus there's loads of benefits to updating now (as I'm certain you're aware.) Kodi works--why not update then block them again like you have been doing? Unless you really think your current fw will become rootable.
Edit--oh yes. Forgot about efuse. Still if its just kodi you care about I wouldn't let that stop me.

[Q] Any new roots?

I was curious to know if there were any new roots for the FireTV? I'm running 51.1.4.3 and from what it says on aftvnews, this version cannot be rooted. With that said, any version higher than 51.1.2.0 can't be rooted.
Any ideas on to why this is? And if there are alternatives to their method? Or, can I down grade to the supported software to allow a root?
Thank you!

No we cannot root newer firmwares.No you cannot downgrade unless you are already rooted. I think our best chance of finding root for the Fire TV is by upgrading the Android version to 4.4 or higher. I would love for Amazon to upgrade our firmware to Android 4.4+ for app compatibility issues, but I also think that it gives us a better chance of achieving root on newer firmwares. Amazon has Android 4.2.2 locked down and it would probably take a miracle to find an exploit for rooting. They have been using 4.2.2 for awhile and they have basically secured it from being rooted.

porkenhimer said:
No we cannot root newer firmwares.No you cannot downgrade unless you are already rooted. I think our best chance of finding root for the Fire TV is by upgrading the Android version to 4.4 or higher. I would love for Amazon to upgrade our firmware to Android 4.4+ for app compatibility issues, but I also think that it gives us a better chance of achieving root on newer firmwares. Amazon has Android 4.2.2 locked down and it would probably take a miracle to find an exploit for rooting. They have been using 4.2.2 for awhile and they have basically secured it from being rooted.
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Shoot, that's unfortunate to hear! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed hoping that they switch to 4.4+

Muscle Nerd said:
Shoot, that's unfortunate to hear! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed hoping that they switch to 4.4+
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i was thinking the same as your orignal post but for the TV STICK.
im tempted to try eroot's latest version. i know they have been able to exploit Lollipop recently but i read that the issue exists on previous versions too somewhere on xda. PingPong root for the samsung galaxy S6 uses this exploit too.
also as a company that doesn't rely on the google ecosystem, what advantage will they have by moving to a newer OS? for them, they are happy with their build. it does everything they want it to do and as the previous user said... they've got most of the exploits out

El_Nino9 said:
i was thinking the same as your orignal post but for the TV STICK.
im tempted to try eroot's latest version. i know they have been able to exploit Lollipop recently but i read that the issue exists on previous versions too somewhere on xda. PingPong root for the samsung galaxy S6 uses this exploit too.
also as a company that doesn't rely on the google ecosystem, what advantage will they have by moving to a newer OS? for them, they are happy with their build. it does everything they want it to do and as the previous user said... they've got most of the exploits out
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Click to collapse
Exactly. I can't think of an argument for amazon wanting to upgrade the OS. Theres actually a very small fraction of users that buy these products and modify them. There's maybe an argument that newer set top boxes will compete with aftv (well that's a given) But IMO its likely they'd address that with a second generation unit. I haven't heard anything regarding this but sure its coming. Apple is about to release #4 which is their fourth box in what? --8 years? There are several roku boxes and aftv is over a year old. So it just seems logical we'll see a new aftv running a newer OS than we will see this console upgrade.
But obviously I hope I'm seeing this wrong.

KLit75 said:
Exactly. I can't think of an argument for amazon wanting to upgrade the OS. Theres actually a very small fraction of users that buy these products and modify them. There's maybe an argument that newer set top boxes will compete with aftv (well that's a given) But IMO its likely they'd address that with a second generation unit. I haven't heard anything regarding this but sure its coming. Apple is about to release #4 which is their fourth box in what? --8 years? There are several roku boxes and aftv is over a year old. So it just seems logical we'll see a new aftv running a newer OS than we will see this console upgrade.
But obviously I hope I'm seeing this wrong.
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There are several reason why they should upgrade to 4.4 or higher, Its real simple, when the apps that Amazon are using as their default Fire TV apps start to require Android 4.4 to install them, then they are no longer default Fire TV apps. It has already happened with several Fire TV apps. Wait til some of the big name apps that a lot of people use requires Android 4.4 and Amazon will have no choice to upgrade to 4.4+. If some of the developers of the more popular apps start requiring android 4.4 then amazon will upgrade quickly. Its gonna happen, cause never since I have been using Android has so many app developers required such a new version of Android to install so many apps. Just in the past couple months I have lost 20+ apps because they started requiring Android 4.4. The only thing I can figure out is that all the app companies are getting ready for Android M, cause there is a rumor that the apps for Android M will not be compatible with other versions of Android. There is also a rumor that Android M is going to let you choose which services you will let each app use when you install apps. Like if you were installing Facebook and no longer wanted facebook to have control of your contacts of location services, then you can just uncheck those option when you install the app. Who knows if the rumors are true, but if they are then Amazon will have to do something in terms of an upgrade. Its not unheard of for an OS to drop support on devices. Even Apple quits supporting their own devices rather quickly. Like if you take an old iphone or ipad and open the app store it will tell you no apps are compatibble because your version of ios is not new enough, and nothing can be installed because there is no newer updates from Apple. The same thing is gonna happen to the Fire TV if its not upgraded. Wait and see.

porkenhimer said:
There are several reason why they should upgrade to 4.4 or higher, Its real simple, when the apps that Amazon are using as their default Fire TV apps start to require Android 4.4 to install them, then they are no longer default Fire TV apps. It has already happened with several Fire TV apps. Wait til some of the big name apps that a lot of people use requires Android 4.4 and Amazon will have no choice to upgrade to 4.4+. If some of the developers of the more popular apps start requiring android 4.4 then amazon will upgrade quickly. Its gonna happen, cause never since I have been using Android has so many app developers required such a new version of Android to install so many apps. Just in the past couple months I have lost 20+ apps because they started requiring Android 4.4. The only thing I can figure out is that all the app companies are getting ready for Android M, cause there is a rumor that the apps for Android M will not be compatible with other versions of Android. There is also a rumor that Android M is going to let you choose which services you will let each app use when you install apps. Like if you were installing Facebook and no longer wanted facebook to have control of your contacts of location services, then you can just uncheck those option when you install the app. Who knows if the rumors are true, but if they are then Amazon will have to do something in terms of an upgrade. Its not unheard of for an OS to drop support on devices. Even Apple quits supporting their own devices rather quickly. Like if you take an old iphone or ipad and open the app store it will tell you no apps are compatibble because your version of ios is not new enough, and nothing can be installed because there is no newer updates from Apple. The same thing is gonna happen to the Fire TV if its not upgraded. Wait and see.
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That's a good point. I didn't consider the fact the aftv would become obsolete by not keeping up with the software. I was focusing on the hardware getting beaten by competition which might happen sooner given the boxes on the horizon. A year ago, you really didn't have many other affordable options to run kodi and apps like netflix in HD. Now you've got a few and more to come. I think a lot will have to do with timing. Amazon seems to listen to their customer base (not us in particular) but if the public embraces 4k more and the newer boxes start to take a bigger piece of the market...I'm just saying it'll be interesting.
It depends on Amazon's view from a business point--why do the customer's buy the product? Will Netflix be affected by running an older OS? (btw--to me the answer to that is it already is! I've been doing netflix instant streaming since it first started the service and i ran it solely on my laptop. AFTV to this day has the most netflix bugs out of all the devices I've ever used.) Amazon has the money to make a better box and make it cheaper than any other company I think. Apple seems to get it finally, but I doubt I'd be interested in that--if you complain about amazon's controlled ecosystem, they have nothing on apple. Doesn't matter because people buy apple and that only helps further the advancement of android tv type boxes.
Don't get me wrong. I hope you're 100% right and the OS gets upgraded ASAP but even if that's inevitable, I'm not certain AFTV will be the box to own at that point, if say it happens around Xmas--when others have been running Lollipop.

KLit75 said:
That's a good point. I didn't consider the fact the aftv would become obsolete by not keeping up with the software. I was focusing on the hardware getting beaten by competfn which might happen sooner given the boxes on the horizon. A year ago, you really didn't have many other affordable options to run kodi and apps like netflix in HD. Now you've got a few and more to come. I think a lot will have to do with timing. Amazon seems to listen to their customer base (not us in particular) but if the public embraces 4k more and the newer boxes start to take a bigger piece of the market...I'm just saying it'll be interesting.
It depends on Amazon's view from a business point--why do the customer's buy the product? Will Netflix be affected by running an older OS? (btw--to me the answer to that is it already is! I've been doing netflix instant streaming since it first started the service and i ran it solely on my laptop. AFTV to this day has the most netflix bugs out of all the devices I've ever used.) Amazon has the money to make a better box and make it cheaper than any other company I think. Apple seems to get it finally, but I doubt I'd be interested in that--if you complain about amazon's controlled ecosystem, they have nothing on apple. Doesn't matter because people buy apple and that only helps further the advancement of android tv type boxes.
Don't get me wrong. I hope you're 100% right and the OS gets upgraded ASAP but even if that's inevitable, I'm not certain AFTV will be the box to own at that point, if say it happens around Xmas--when others have been running Lollipop.
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I think the Fire TV can last for years, but first we have to get newer firmwares rooted. Then we need to get another system running on the Fire TV. I would like to see something happen with the Fire TV like what happened with windows mobile, running two and three OS at a time. I used to run windows mobile and Android on my old tilt 2 and that was 6 years ago. All you had to do was put the android system on an SDCard and boot into it. I would like to see that happen with the Fire TV, where we can put other systems on an external drive and boot into them.
The hardware is fine on the Fire TV, and specs are not everything. Just because specs are great on paper does not mean you will get better performance in all areas. I think HTPCs have proven that specs mean much less than companies lead you to believe. The Raspberry Pi is a clear example that a low cost low powered device is more than enough to make use of. I am still running an Apple TV 1 with 256mb of ram and 1ghz which is under clocked by Apple to run at 600mhz, and it performs very well. The Fire TV can run for five or more years as long as Amazon keeps updating it, or developers find a way to get a new OS on to it.
Software is way more important, cause as soon as Amazon, Windows, Apple etc stop updating devices you either have to put a different system on it or get something else. So like I said, as soon as more apps require a ewer version of Android, Amazon can either upgrade to a newer version of Android or let the Fire TV become obsolete. I for one hope they upgrade. I know some people have said Amazon has no need to upgrade to a newer version, but if they don't the Fire TV will be useless, and that's a fact.