Fire TV to change operating system?

There is a report that Amazon will change the operating system in its Fire TV devices. Currently, Fire OS is based on the Android operating system. The report from Lowpass says Amazon will dump their Android based OS as early as next year.

Development of the new operating system, which is internally known as Vega, appears fairly advanced. The system has already been tested on Fire TV streaming adapters, and Amazon has told select partners about its plans to transition to a new application framework in the near future. A source with knowledge of the company’s plans suggested that it could start shipping Vega on select Fire TV devices as early as next year.

Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amazon has been working on an alternative OS for years. I first heard about the company exploring this idea in 2019, and someone told me at the time that Amazon folks had brought it up in conversations with chip makers as early as 2017.

Will this happen? Maybe. Is it a good idea? Maybe. Then again, maybe not.

Does it matter? Yes, very much so. If this blows up in their face, this could be a disaster for Fire TV devices. Of course,  they've been at it for years, so maybe they're waiting to get it right. If so, then it'll be a very good thing.

I'm curious about this whole thing, and wonder how it will all shake out. My Streaming Life doesn't use a lot of Fire TV, although I'm very familiar with it. How it changes in the next year will be interesting.

New issues with new TV technology

Remember a few years ago when all TV stations went digital? (Okay, not all did, but so many did that it's easier to say that 'all did' go digital.)

Well, something similar will happen again one day, maybe sooner than we realize. And, there are issues that could impact your ability to watch free over the air TV.

Let's let Tyler the Antenna Man explain:

[YouTube]

This could be a major problem. I don't really expect it to be that, though. Well, okay, there are enough people making the rules that don't really care what you or I think, so this new technology may not be a good thing.

My Streaming Life has used antennae to expland my live TV (and on-demand, via DVR) watching. I really want the technology to work for me, not help line someone else's pocket.

Watching College Football in 2023: Week 11

Week 11 of college football for 2023 has begun. There are 65 Division 1-A/FBS games on tap this week, with ten already played (three Tuesday, three Wednesday, two Thursday night, and two last night).

Today, there are 55 games scheduled. There are five games that feature two Top 25 teams playing each other:

• Mississippi (9) at Georgia (2)
• Michigan (3) at Penn State (10)
• Utah (18) at Washington (5)
• Tennessee (13) at Missouri (14)

One ranked team, Louisville (11), won Thursday night. Notre Dame (20) has the week off. The rest of the Top 25 all play unranked teams.

Today's games will be broadcast over several networks. Here are the channels or networks you'll need to watch all the games:

• ABC
• ACC Network
• Big Ten Network
• CBS
• CBS Sports Network
• CW
• ESPN
• ESPN2
• ESPNU
• ESPN+
• Fox
• Fox Sports 1
• Longhorn Network
• NBC
• NFL Network
• Pac 12 Network
• Peacock
• SEC Network

Note: No games are on Longhorn Network this week.

Between this weekend's games and next Saturday, there are ten games involving Division 1-A/FBS teams, one involving a ranked team (at least, by this week’s poll). Those games will be broadcast on:

• ESPN
• ESPN2
• ESPNU
• FS1

It’s possible that before the season ends, there may even be another network or two that carries games, but these are the ones that are confirmed as the season begins. Here's how to get all the networks:

ABC

• Antenna (free)
• Sling TV (8 markets only) ($45/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Entertainment) ($85/month)

ACC Network

• Sling TV (Orange + Sports Extra) ($51/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Choice) ($116/month)

Big Ten Network

• Sling TV (Blue + Sports Extra) ($51/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Choice) ($116/month)

CBS

• Antenna (free)
• Paramount Plus (Premium) $12/month
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Entertainment) ($85/month)

CBS Sports Network

• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Ultimate) ($146/month)

CW

• Antenna (free)
• Not available streaming.

ESPN, ESPN2

• Sling TV (Orange) ($40/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Entertainment) ($85/month)

ESPN+

• ESPN+ (standalone) ($10/month)
• Disney Bundle ($15/month)

ESPNU

• Sling TV (Orange + Sports Extra) ($51/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro + Fubo Extra) ($83/month)
• DirecTV (Choice) ($116/month)

Fox

• Antenna (free)
• Sling TV (18 markets only) ($45/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Entertainment) ($85/month)

Fox Sports 1

• Sling TV (Blue + Sports Extra) ($51/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Entertainment) ($85/month)

Longhorn Network

• Sling TV (Orange + Sports Extra) ($51/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• DirecTV (Choice) ($116/month)

NBC

• Antenna (free)
• Peacock (Plus) ($12/month)
• Sling TV (11 markets only) ($45/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Entertainment) ($85/month)

NFL Network

• Sling TV (Blue) ($40/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Choice) ($116/month)

Pac 12 Network

• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)

Peacock

• Peacock is its own service, and can be used to watch NBC live programming with the $12/month plan.

SEC Network

• Sling TV (Orange) ($40/month)
• Vidgo (Plus) ($70/month)
• Hulu+Live TV ($77/month)
• YouTube TV ($73/month)
• Fubo (Pro) ($75/month)
• DirecTV (Choice) ($116/month)

That's this week in Division 1-A/FBS college football, and covers all the networks -- so far -- that are carrying college football games in 2023. My Streaming Life focuses on college football during this time of year.

YouTube TV review

I've mentioned this before, and here it is again. I don't normally subscribe to a live TV streaming service. Cable, delivered over the Internet, isn't for me. However, as I've said, I understand the appeal of it. Some people just want to watch TV and are willing to pay big bucks for it.

Many consider YouTube TV to be the best of those services. I won't disagree. Lon TV recently reviewed YouTube TV:

[YouTube]

My Streaming Life doesn't need a service such as YouTube TV. Yours might. It is a good one. Expensive, but good.

Is it time to try Nvidia Shield again?

It was a year and a half ago that I got an Nvidia Shield device. I tested it for a little while and liked it fine, but I decided to try it as a Plex server as well.

I didn't like how it went, and decided I would go back to using it as a streaming device, after I completed a couple of other projects.

Those went well, but they took longer than I expected, and I never went back to the Nvidia Shield testing. That means I have an Nvidia Shield in a box in a drawer or on a shelf somewhere.

Somewhere.

Yeah, I looked for it this past weekend and couldn't find it. I don't know where I put it. I need to find that thing.

I want to test the Nvidia Shield as a primary streaming device, and put some serious time into it. I've been using Chromecast with Google TV, and actually like it. But, I think I'm done testing it. But, before going back to Roku, I want to finish my Nvidia Shield testing.

My Streaming Life uses four major platforms: Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Google TV. They all work well, but the devices can make a big difference. I want to put more time and effort into the Nvidia Shield. I would hate to think I spent all that money for nothing.

The good news for Dish is they lost 60,000 subscribers

You would think that losing 60,000 subscribers in a quarter would not be good news. But, in the crazy world of streaming, it is good news.

Well, the losing subscribers part isn't good. But the details for streaming are actually pretty good.

Sling TV, which is owned by Dish, gained 117,000 subscribers in the 3rd quarter. The bad news for the company is that their satellite service lost 181,000 subscribers, giving the company an overall loss.

The upside is that streaming is picking up, after larger losses in the 2nd quarter. The streaming market is growing, and the satellite market is shrinking. The satellite market is still around three times the size of the streaming market, insofar as Dish services are concerned, but the trend is to streaming.

I've never had a satellite TV service, so I can't say what the experience is like, but I've been at places where they do have it. It's pretty much like cable. And I dropped cable in January 2011, so I'm a little rusty on that.

My Streaming Life totally removed the need for cable or satellite. More and more people seem to be finding this to be the case.

Fire TV searches to include ads

I totally missed this story last week. If you missed it as well, you might now find it interesting.

Fire TV will start inserting ads into search results.

Think about that for a minute. You're wanting to search for something on your Fire TV device, and the results include advertisements. According to AFTVNews, this will start later this year:

The search result screen is one of the last Fire TV interfaces that has remained ad-free but that will change later this year when the new Fire TV AI voice search arrives. Once the new conversational voice search arrives, expect to see ads mixed in with your actual search results. Other Fire TV advertisement changes being made include allowing non-media and entertainment brands to advertise in the first slot of the Feature Rotator, which is the big banner ad that takes up the upper half of the Fire TV home screen.

Of course, you get stuff like this when you search Google in your Web browser. That doesn't mean it's okay. It means they're getting paid to give you results you didn't ask for.

This is on the heels of Amazon putting more ads on the home screen. Sure, the amount of screen real estate isn't changing, but the content is including more ads, rather than related promotional materials (which, to be fair, are ads, although unpaid ads).

My Streaming Life is used to ads. I use more ad-supported content, and don't subscribe to a live cable replacement service. Ads aren't a big deal. That doesn't mean I want more of them.