Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick can be powered by TV USB port, may still support sideloading
Source: 9to5Google
Amazon has today announced a new Fire TV Stick HD starting at $35 that can be powered directly from a TV’s USB port.
Oddly positioned as “Amazon’s slimmest streaming device,” the latest generation of the Fire TV Stick HD outputs 1080p and is “smaller in volume and width than previous models.” The key improvement is that it is optimized for direct power through a TV’s USB port, eliminating the need for a separate power adapter—a common headache with many full‑feature streaming dongles.
The stick uses USB‑C for power, unlike some other recent releases.
Interestingly, this new Fire TV Stick continues to run an Android‑based Fire OS rather than Amazon’s in‑house Vega OS that debuted on the Fire TV Stick 4K Select. A warning about a lack of sideloading that appeared on the Select’s listing is not present on the new HD model, even though Amazon claims the device is “30% faster on average than the last‑generation HD stick.” While Amazon has been cracking down on sideloading, this hardware appears to still support it. We’ll update the article if new information emerges.
The software experience has been redesigned, with the new interface launched earlier this year that is heavily inspired by Google TV.
