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Businesses Google Youtube Entertainment

Amazon's YouTube App on Fire TV Stops Working Ahead of Schedule (fastcompany.com) 85

Posted by msmash from the rat-fights dept.
Amazon has already deactivated its YouTube app on Fire TV devices, four days before a planned blockade by Google. Instead of opening YouTube directly, the app now encourages users to install Silk or Firefox, and will open a link to the site once either browser is installed. From a report: Google has said it will cut off YouTube access on Fire TV starting January 1, citing Amazon's unwillingness to support Prime Video on Chromecast, or to sell Google hardware (including Chromecast) on its website. The companies say they're having productive discussions, and Amazon now has a product listing up for Chromecast, but the YouTube app's deactivation suggests an agreement isn't imminent.
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Amazon's YouTube App on Fire TV Stops Working Ahead of Schedule More

Amazon's YouTube App on Fire TV Stops Working Ahead of Schedule

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  • Amazon vs YouTube (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Thursday December 28, 2017 @03:14PM (#55823549)

    Whoever wins, we lose.

    • Re:Amazon vs YouTube (Score:5, Interesting)

      by bluefoxlucid ( 723572 ) on Thursday December 28, 2017 @03:30PM (#55823623) Homepage Journal

      Amazon has the advantage: more Prime subscribers (with Prime Video) than Play subscribers buying videos. It's using one monopoly to try to expand power into another market (streaming devices). Using their online sales monopoly to tie to their streaming video product and simultaneously hobble a competitor's ability to sell streaming devices and stream video to their devices is ... a complex ball of violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust act.

      Didn't Microsoft get bent over for this once or twice?

      • Didn't Microsoft get bent over for this once or twice?

        MIcrosoft forgot to pay their dues to the politicians. As soon as they started contributing to national campaign budgets, their anti-trust lawsuit conveniently went away. Amazon pays [opensecrets.org], and so does Google [opensecrets.org].

        • Yet you're not contributing to mine? ;)

          • How is your campaign going?

            • Slow. December was fun for door knocking, but everyone is busy and not too many events happening. It's getting time to activate volunteers and try to pull together meetings.

              Everyone I talk to likes my platform, and most people seem to dislike Elijah as a congressman. He's well-liked, just not for doing his job. If I get him out of the way, he'll have a full Congressional pension and can be a community leader (and political activist) full-time without worrying himself with fundraising, so win-win I gue

              • my cousin actually wrote a thesis on this because her entire life revolves around social work and obtaining half a dozen college degrees--so I have a more-direct answer for crime as well. If we cut the recidivism rate by more than half, we cut the crime; prisons that develop inmates into working members of society--rehabilitation from day one--will do that.

                That sounds great, but what are you going to do to achieve that?

                • Well, it's been explored in North Dakota [motherjones.com] and Pennsylvania, so I imagine pulling some expert input would be the first step. These people actually traveled to Norway to see their prison systems, so they started with expert input, too. I actually have a project management certification, so I tend to rely on other people's knowledge a lot--never underestimate the power of bringing in someone smarter than yourself.

                  Chiefly, I'll need to push policy to work toward new approaches to prison. To accomplish that

              • I get that you need party alignment to (effectively) mount a campaign.
                That said (and I am not a direct constituent as I'm almost as far away from you as possible while still being in the lower 48) how do you feel about the DNCs shenanigans in the last cycle?

                It has been evident for quite some time now that our nominally 2 party system is really just an oligarchy of the elite and is no longer (for quite some while) a government by, of, and for the people.
                How do you propose to sow seeds of change?

                I accept that

                • how do you feel about the DNCs shenanigans in the last cycle?

                  Bernie the Democratic Socialist versus Hillary who shall take no personal responsibility? A lot of us new candidates have large disagreements with our current representatives in government at all levels.

                  A lot of new Democratic candidates think we need more Bernie; but what people want is Social Democracy, not Democratic Socialism. We don't want a nation where the government forces businesses out of business and takes over administration of everything itself; we want a nation where we can get ahead, whe

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

        Using their online sales monopoly...

        Yes, I certainly cannot buy electronics online from anywhere else without extraordinary effort. Ebay.com, Newegg.com, Walmart.com, Bestbuy.com, Target.com... that monopoly of 45% of online sales in fall 2017 is -- wait, only 45%?

        By that definition, Google is using its YouTube monopoly to try to expand power into the same market (streaming devices) and we should bend them over as well.

        Then we can bend them over for their search monopoly, advertising monopoly, phone OS mon

      • Amazon has the advantage: more Prime subscribers (with Prime Video) than Play subscribers buying videos. It's using one monopoly to try to expand power into another market (streaming devices).

        Google has the advantage: a monopoly over Android devices, and their own web store for only their own devices on which they do not carry Amazon's devices. A monopoly over bundling search with Android devices. And of course, a virtual monopoly over user videos on the internet, of anything but gaming, which they are now abusing to try to force Amazon to carry their devices in Amazon's web store even though Google doesn't carry Amazon's devices in theirs.

        Didn't Microsoft get bent over for this once or twice?

        No. The USDoJ did find that Microsoft was guilty of abus

    • Speak for yourself (and the sheeple)! My hardware (a NUC running Debian) still plays exactly what I tell it to! I was right to not rely on proprietary hardware and software!

  • You can now install Firefox on Fire Stick and Fire TV and it is suppose to work with YouTube including fullscreen mode.

    I installed it last week in anticipation. I will try it out when I get home.

    Nice to have a browser on the Fire Stick anyway

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Kenja ( 541830 )
      It works well, even has a shortcut tile to YouTube so you just launch and click to get to it.

      • It works well, even has a shortcut tile to YouTube so you just launch and click to get to it.

        No, it works like shit, as one would expect. The interface used to be smooth garbage. Now it's choking, choppy garbage. It also means having to log in again, which means recovering the password. Firefox has become shit on every platform in the latest release. Performance went in the toilet, when the goal was supposed to be the opposite, and the new plugin system is inferior to the old one because it doesn't let you do all the same things. It's actually missing functionality.

        Firefox fail.

    • I'm far more likely to get a Fire, now that I know I can just install a browser and play videos from that. I recall trying those mini-Android HDMI plug in things, and (at least when I tried them) full screen in browser video didn't work. Since that's all I wanted...

  • Big Business doesn't know that, and may end up learning it the hard way.

    A plague on both their houses.

  • I bought the season of Air Disasters in Amazon. I was able to use chrome cast to go from my chorme browser in my chromebook to the living room TV.

    There were some minor issues, making me stop and restart the cast, but it worked. What does Google mean by support chromecast in amazon prime?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Avidiax ( 827422 )

      What you did is stream to your computer and then screen capture a Chrome tab and pipe it to Chromecast. Very inefficient, clunky, problematic.

      What Google wants is an Amazon video app. You use your phone to start a video on the Chromecast, and the Chromecast gets the stream directly from Wifi, decodes it, displays it. Your phone only does start/stop and title selection.

  • ... how competition benefits the end user in this digital age!

  • Well, not that shocked.

  • Awesome to see two very large, very influential companies act like this. Especially since these are the companies we're inviting into our homes to record us 24/7, And clearly have aspirations to influence every aspect of our daily lives.

    (On an aside, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to see that the billionaires running these two companies are still human after all.)

    • So what would you have done differently? Alphabet(Google) is doing this because Amazon decided that they were not going to sell Chromecast or other Google devices on Amazon - nor would they allow Amazon Resellers to sell them. If a brick and mortar mall was owned by AT&T and they banned the sale of any non-AT&T telecommunications products from the premesis I imagine that would be inviting an antitrust lawsuit of some sort, correct? Amazon is the largest non-brick and mortar "mall" online by far.

      T

      • Well, this is kind of the problem inherent to a large company with many different business units.

        Should Amazon's core business (selling shit to people) be hamstrung by their other business units? At some point business A will have conflicting interests with business B.. Punishing your customers (which is what this boils down to really) is not the right answer -- we can call this pulling a 'Sony'. it rarely works out in anyone's favor.

        Because really, if you run a store, and you turn a profit on items sold

        • > Because really, if you run a store, and you turn a profit on items sold, why voluntarily remove a popular item?

          Rational actors wouldn't, but in this case Amazon thought they could promote their hardware at everyone else's expense - for a while they also weren't selling Apple TVs, though *that* was in retaliation to Apple not allowing the Prime streaming app for Apple TV... seems this behavior goes deeper, but the common denominator is Amazon.

          > Apple can get away with it, because .. it's Apple.

          They

      • So what would you have done differently? Alphabet(Google) is doing this because Amazon decided that they were not going to sell Chromecast or other Google devices on Amazon - nor would they allow Amazon Resellers to sell them.

        The Google [web] Store [google.com] doesn't sell Amazon devices. Google has a virtual monopoly on user-uploaded videos on the internet, and they are abusing that to try to force Amazon to sell their products. But Google also has a web store, and they refuse to sell Amazon's products in it. Why is it fair for Google to insist that Amazon (who clearly does not have a monopoly on web retail) sell Google's devices when they are unwilling to sell Amazon's devices?

        Google is abusing a monopoly position in the market, and is cl

        • > The Google [web] Store [google.com] doesn't sell Amazon devices.

          Are you seriously attempting to compare the Google Web store that only exists to sell Google products - to Amazon whose proclaimed mission is to sell "everything from A to Z" ? My supermarket doesn't sell Amazon devices either! Nor does the local corner store, or the gas station. When will the madness end?

          > and they refuse to sell Amazon's products in it.

          You might have missed this part, but Google's store doesn't sell ANYONE ELSE'S p

  • This will backfire and people will just end up blaming youtube, searching for another service on their device that will work

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rsborg ( 111459 )

      This will backfire and people will just end up blaming youtube, searching for another service on their device that will work

      Maybe they'll stop buying FireTVs instead so they can get their fix of YouTube? It's not like the options aren't plentiful and cheap.

      • They can't unbuy something they own and use regularly, they can only supplement it

        At this rate we'll need a separate device for each service we want to use... Amazon, Google, Netflix, Disney, HBO, Hulu, is this a ploy to drive people back to cable?

        • The Chromecast works for all of those but Amazon, but that's Amazon's choice.

          The fire works for all of them but YouTube, but that's Amazon's choice.

          • The Chromecast works for all of those but Amazon, but that's Amazon's choice.

            You are a liar [chromecasthelp.net].

            The fire works for all of them but YouTube, but that's Amazon's choice.

            That is another lie. That is Google's choice. They disabled the app, not Amazon.

            You are a liar and an ignoramus.

            • You are either a troll or a moron or potentially both. All while linking to unofficial sources that have wrong and/or purposefully misleading information.

              All while attempting to discredit others. You sir are a shitty human being. Are you sure your name shouldn't be ShittyPoo?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by kqs ( 1038910 )

              Your article uses the screen-mirror capabilities of Android and Chrome because Amazon refuses to support chromecast in their app. I'm assuming you've never tried screen-mirroring a video with chromecast (or VNC or any other mirroring tech). Screen-mirroring a video used to give you laughably unusable results; google has improved it so you now get almost-watchable results, which is probably as good as we'll ever get (due to the technical problems of mirroring every pixel wirelessly in real time). So yeah,

    • I don't share your opinion, I think most people will blame Amazon.

  • Yep, looks like the bit IT and media companies are doing their best to turn the internet into cable TV. You have to buy their streaming devices (the new version of set top boxes) to watch their shows and films. Soon, the "chord cutters" will be able to enjoy the traditional array of boxes/devices, multiple subscriptions, and bundled stuff they'll never watch just like the good ol' days.

    • How does "set top box now just runs FireFox, whatever website video in full screen" get distorted in your mind to "set top boxes are locking you in"?

      It's actually the great unburdening of a special app for every website.

  • Amazon deleted/disabled/broken an app installed by ME. Very rude, very rude indeed.

    This is a problem.

    Dear Amazon, I think there is a perceived ownership problem.

    I own the device, not you.

    I decide how to use the device, not you.

    If you want to talk about shared ownership, we can potentially come to an agreement, but you just stepped over a line.

    Don't mess with my stuff or how I have it configured.

    If you look back in history, Sony tried idiotic moves similar to this deciding what content could work on what dev

    • Amazon deleted/disabled/broken an app installed by ME. Very rude, very rude indeed.

      No, they did not. Google did that. Amazon did absolutely nothing. You are angry at Amazon, while the people abusing their monopoly position (owners of Youtube) are the ones who actually made this change. Amazon did not remove or change the app, it just stopped working because Google made a change on their servers. Then Google told you it was Amazon's fault, and you lapped up their shit like a good dog.

      I look forward to your apology letter.

      I look forward to Slashdot without you. The door's that way.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • I have learnt my lesson (well I hope I did).

    Been burned by Google a few times

    1) 2012, Sony NSZ-GS7 Internet Player with Google TV - 2012. Great keyboard, but Google stopped supporting pretty quickly, 2014?

    2) Now my Amazon Fire TV stick, Google blocks YouTube app.

    My next TV stick/box will for sure be a non name chineese, thanks but you (Google) are a real pain.

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