My Grand daughter is asking for a fire stick.
Can someone educate me on this products; what are the expenses after purchases and what does a fire stick do?
What are the pros and cons on this item. Thanks AL

Get her a box of matches. You'll be good.

Can't help you, the one I got from Amazon was DOA. 2nd one, no remote. I gave up.

I'm certainly not an expert, but I've got a couple of them.

The benefit is you plug it into a TV's HDMI port, plug up the power cord, connect to wireless internet, and you now have access to streaming services like Amazon, Netflix, Disney+, HBO GO, etc.

Some applications (not those above) are free (YouTube, for example), and you can do certain things with it that will allow you to watch just about anything you want, ever, but the basic use is to access one of those above services to watch shows/movies. So, while one doesn't have to have a subscription to Amazon, Netflix, etc., it's makes sense to get some of them.

Most of them are pretty cheap. And if a family member or friend already has a subscription to one or more of them and wants to share the login information, she will be able to use it. With some stipulations (i.e. only so many devices can be logged in at a time).

You get it from Amazon, here:

https://www.amazon.com/Fire-TV...id=1586688767&sr=8-2

I have bought several over the years,, some only lasted a month. The last one I bought, I added the extended warranty and it has worked for 6 months so far.

When they go on sale, usually for $25, I buy an extra one. But when they work, they work great.

You can also use it to share photo albums on Amazon Photo if you have Amazon Prime. That might be a great way to share with your grand daughter.

The firestick 4K is the one to get approx $50 noticeably faster than $40 version.

I’ve had one for maybe 3 years now. If you have Amazon Prime, their movie streaming service is free. You can add quite a few apps to it, such as YouTube, Netflix, tubi, TCM, Pandora, TuneInRadio, and lots of others. I don’t have any complaints, but sometimes it does seem a little slow loading. Playing works great.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s a good little gadget if you don’t have a smart TV.

It's used to stream online services to the TV. I have had one for a few years and it works great. I use it mostly to stream Netflix and some Amazon Prime.

Fairly easy to set up and then you can use it to stream any services you have such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video. All of those services you have to pay a for.

You can also stream youtube and some news for free. It has some other functions but those are the main things.

I got mine on sale for a good price and have been very happy with how simple and easy it is to use.

My latest, the 4K, can be had for about $25 on sale. Amazon puts them on sale frequently.

We have both these and Apple TV's on our sets. We stream all of our content via these devices. YouTube TV, Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, etc.


We can easily unplug this from our TV, put it in our suitcase and take our subscriptions with us when we travel. Just plug it into an HDMI port, connect to the local wifi and you're watching.

We prefer the Apple TV however it is considerably more expensive.

You can also download KODI and be able to watch just about anything, provided you can get it to download what you want to see.
I have the regular Firesticks and the 4K models,one hard wired, don't really seem to notice much improvement between the regular and the 4K, especially if trying to watch the KODI app.
I remind myself you get what you pay for.

So it’s basically a ROKU thing?

Huh. I always thought a firestick was a gun. I wondered how old your granddaughter was, and what gun you were going to buy for her.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
So it’s basically a ROKU thing?

Yes.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
So it’s basically a ROKU thing?

Well, a Roku-like thing. It's a streaming device and Roku's are streaming devices. But calling it a "Roku thing" would be like calling a Ruger a "Sig thing"

See: Android TV Box and Streaming TV Component Review for a couple other recent threads on the subject.

I have a Firestick 4k on each TV. I paid between $30 and $50 each. You configure them to access your wifi, and then you use them to stream video from the various services, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc.

Ongoing costs are dependent on the content you want to access. If you already pay for hbo, there is an HBO app on the firestick (no additional cost).

I like the 4k firestick specifically because it the remote I comes with has a volume button that can be programmed for your TV. So I don't need to hunt down the tv remote as often.


Your TV must have an available Hdmi input. I like it much better than apple TV.

Thanks for all the information.
I now know a little about this item and I guess I'll have to talk to someone in the know one on one so I can get some question answered.

As an oldster not much into this modern tech I'll have to find out what Hdmi and few other terms mean.

Thanks again

quote:

Originally posted by GRIZZLYBEAR:
Thanks for all the information.
I now know a little about this item and I guess I'll have to talk to someone in the know one on one so I can get some question answered.

As an oldster not much into this modern tech I'll have to find out what Hdmi and few other terms mean.

Thanks again

It's a device that allows your tv to access the internet to stream tv's or movies from various streaming websites to the TV. The streaming stick is small and can take it with you and easily plug it in from TV to TV to watch the same streaming services you have subscribed to. There are NO monthly fees unless YOU or the kids parents sign up for them (such as Netflix) and pay for the streaming fees with a credit card. The device itself cannot access your credit card unless you go online and put the credit card onto a site and agree to the terms.

Think of it as a 1911 magazine. You can put the magazine in any 1911 to use THAT magazine. But unless you pay for the ammo and put it in the magazine, it is only a magazine and the only cost to you is the magazine itself.

quote:

Originally posted by GRIZZLYBEAR:
Thanks for all the information.
I now know a little about this item and I guess I'll have to talk to someone in the know one on one so I can get some question answered.

Ask away right here. There are several of us here that, between us, should be able to answer any question you have

quote:

Originally posted by GRIZZLYBEAR:
As an oldster not much into this modern tech I'll have to find out what Hdmi and few other terms mean.

HDMI (all caps, cuz it's an acronym): High-Definition Multimedia Interface.

It's how modern TV peripherals (streaming devices like the Fire Stick, DVD/Blu-ray players, DVRs, etc.) connect to modern TVs.

Connector looks kind of like a wide USB connector. (You know what "USB" is, right?)

quote:

Originally posted by GRIZZLYBEAR:
Thanks again

You're quite welcome

That was an excellent analogy, jimmy123x.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Huh. I always thought a firestick was a gun....
flashguy

Technically, that's a "boom stick".