In other news (apolitical thread)...

[betarhoalphadelta]

As MDT pointed out, it's already happened once with Google and Amazon.  I have no faith that the underlying interests of such technological giants will remain aligned and, perhaps more importantly, that the massive egos of their owners/CEOs won't interfere with practical market considerations. 

Agreed. Google and MSFT are the only two entities that I can see Amazon really getting into a tiff with over cloud competition... And MSFT doesn't have a streaming TV service. So them sticking their thumb in Google's eyes makes sense. 

Obviously there are other companies Amazon would potentially tiff with, i.e. Walmart, Target, Barnes & Noble, etc... But none of those are in the streaming game, so it's not something I think would be relevant. 

That said, it's also the reason that I'm a huge Roku fan... I don't have to worry about it because they're service agnostic. 

[utee94]

Agreed. Google and MSFT are the only two entities that I can see Amazon really getting into a tiff with over cloud competition... And MSFT doesn't have a streaming TV service. So them sticking their thumb in Google's eyes makes sense.

Obviously there are other companies Amazon would potentially tiff with, i.e. Walmart, Target, Barnes & Noble, etc... But none of those are in the streaming game, so it's not something I think would be relevant.

That said, it's also the reason that I'm a huge Roku fan... I don't have to worry about it because they're service agnostic.

Sure but ESPN/Disney/Hulu/Max are in streaming and overlap significantly with competition for a lot of the various original programming, original sports programming, and movie and television catalogs, that Amazon also carries.  Netflix, too.  I'd really hate to be reliant on Firestick and then get caught in the crossfire when Bezos decides to flex on one of his competitors.

[MikeDeTiger]

1.  I've never used Firestick so can't comment on it.  But I am wary of it for the reasons bwar outlined.  I've never found the Roku interface to be "clunky" but rather I've found it to be significantly superior to Samsung and Sony native apps, and vastly superior to AppleTV.

2.  To answer a question further up, Sony and Samsung have, at times, maneuvered to be the sole television OEM provider of one or other various streaming services.  And even when they're not maneuvering to cut out their competitors, they still haven't shown to be consistent in providing updates and support for the various streaming apps they carry. They let their apps become outdated because they don't value all of the streaming platforms.  Their core business is to manufacture and sell television hardware, not apps.  Theoretically they could lose favor with consumers if they don't adequately maintain the offerings in their native apps but, as has been proven on this forum and in the market at large, users will realistically just go purchase a Roku or Firestick, so the television manufacturers have no incentive to provide updated and well supported native apps for streaming services. Roku on the other hand, can not ever do that, their value proposition is that they support everything equally, and agnostically.

1.  Likewise, I've never used native Samsung and Sony apps, though what you say about them makes sense.  And my mom has a Samsung TV they try to use native apps with, and she hates it.  The counterargument there is that Boomer is a technological cautionary tale, and she'd have never gotten her entertainment center set up without me.  I have used an old AppleTV platform, and it suuuuuuucked.  

2a.  Samsung and Sony's actions make sense, but I don't understand the motivation from the streaming platform side.  If you let your service be farmed out solely to one manufacturer, you're undercutting your own business in a major way.  Not sure why Netflix et al would do that.  

2b.  Roku's advantage as you outline it makes sense, but only for as long as nobody else steps into their market and becomes a competitor.  Then there's no guarantee against the same situation you describe with Samsung and Sony.  If Netflix would consider letting one of them be its sole distributor on the native-TV-platforms, it might just as easily consider letting Xbox or something be it's sole console distributor and tell Roku to f*** off.  

[MikeDeTiger]

I thought basically all of Amazon is a loss leader for AWS

Might well be.  I won't pretend to know much about AWS or Amazon's financials in general.  I've heard guys who cover the movie/tv industry and talk about their show investments and losses say that Amazon basically just pisses away money with Amazon Studios in order to generate more Prime subscriptions.  If you tell me Prime subscriptions are just a means to more AWS $, I certainly won't dispute it.  

[FearlessF]

had to look that up - yes,dangling out fancy words must be a long winter on the dirt farm unlike sunny,beckoning N.E. Ohio

picked that up on triple D

[Cincydawg]

AstroForge: This company is set to launch a scouting mission before mining asteroids for precious metals | CNN

[FearlessF]

are they publicly traded??

[Gigem]

I've had most of the interfaces mentioned.  FireTV, Roku, Samsung, LG, and a couple of others.  

What I've found is that just like any other computer, there are differences in price and capabilities.  The worst interface I've had is a Samsung TV in my bedroom.  It was a cheapish TV, and it showed.  The interface was super clunky, and slow.  I replaced it with a firestick, and then when that one acted up another firestick like 5 years later.  The firestick worked great, and had all the apps I needed and more.  

My mom has a big and expensive Samsung and the TV interface works fine and has lots of apps.  My cheap Roku TV in my barn works really good, as does my LG in my living room.  

Never used Chromecast or whatever Google called their firestick.  

[MikeDeTiger]

Never used Chromecast or whatever Google called their firestick. 

Used it pretty extensively in the early days.  It was hard to go back to after I got used to the Firestick (we kept the Chromecast in our bedroom) because it's controlled by phone, a noticeably clunkier experience than having a dedicated remote.  One thing I did prefer about it to anything else was typed searches.  It's way quicker to type on my phone than to use the little letter matrix that apps use to enter text where you have to scroll to one letter at a time.  Most things use voice command now, but that's also a bit of a weakness with the firestick.  It's just not powerful enough, I think, and performance can really bog down and not work at all in some apps when Alexa voice command is attempted.  

[FearlessF]

[Cincydawg]

are they publicly traded??

AstroForge is a private company and its stock is not publicly traded. AstroForge is an aerospace company that is developing asteroid mining technology. 

[FearlessF]

guess I'm not gonna get rich

[MrNubbz]

Ya I get that feeling to,anyhow never had the Britishers being wine sips like your map suggets

[utee94]

Ya I get that feeling to,anyhow never had the Britishers being wine sips like your map suggets

Yeah and Spain being more beer than wine is a little surprising as well.