About two years ago, e-commerce giant Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) launched the first versions of the Amazon Fire TV and the Fire TV Stick. Both of these products became two of the most popular items sold by the retail website. A year later, upgraded variants of both gadgets were released. However, some customers and techies noticed that the Fire TV Stick’s new features were not as impressive as Fire TV’s, though a notable difference was that the new Fire TV was equipped to support 4K playback. On the other hand, the Fire TV Stick, which it should be noted, is considered one of the best USB-sized devices in 2016, included a remote with voice control support that was exactly the same remote used for the main Fire TV device. Customers were practically getting the same original hardware plus a new remote.
Just recently, AFTV News uncovered a Federal Communications Commission [FCC] document for the approval of a certain device. The specifications do not completely identify what the product actually is but some of the details listed point to a new Amazon Fire TV Stick. The fact that the FCC filing was done using a shell company also makes it harder to determine if this particular item indeed belongs to Amazon’s ecosphere. That said, the top online retail store is known to use a different name whenever it files documents with the FCC.
Despite the undefined FCC listing, most items on the document indicate it is indeed the Fire TV Stick. The Amazon Fire TV is out of the question because of its elongated and rectangular shape. Moreover, the product’s anniversary is coming so Amazon is certainly looking to release a new version to celebrate the event.
The equipment is described as an “HDMI Digital Media Receiver.” It is tagged with the FCC ID 2AE6S-0948 and the model number LY73PR. An HDMI extender was used during the testing period. It also came with a USB cable that was utilized to power the device. The FCC listing also shows that the owner company has requested to keep the details of the product confidential.
One of the main features that the new Amazon Fire TV Stick could have is how it can support dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi. It is also equipped for Bluetooth capacity. This gives the new version a big boost from the older models that came with 802.11n Wi-Fi radio.
Other notes on the document state that the device was tested with a Bluetooth game controller. The existing Fire TV Stick does not have this as it uses Wi-Fi direct. This could mean that Amazon is also planning to release a new game controller. The FCC documents did not show any ID or model number for the controller. It could mean that it was included when the main device was being tested.
Bluetooth reliant headphones were also used to test the suspected new Fire TV stick. However, the model number listed points to a Sony headset. Other paraphernalia were used to test the device further.
There are other speculations derived from the FCC approval document posted. There is a chance that the Amazon Fire TV Stick 2 will not support 4K as a 1920×1200 monitor with 720p MPEG4 video was used to test the product. 4K devices are usually tested using 4K monitors. The previous Fire TV Stick allowed users to expand the memory using a microSD card. But, the FCC docs did not mention anything about an expandable storage slot. Hopefully, Amazon announces the new Fire TV Stick before the month of September ends.
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