Fire TV Stick

Got my Fire TV Stick in the mail yesterday.  Couldn't resist the Black Friday price of $25.  I figured I wanted to get a backup remote for my Fire TV anyway (which is $15), so I would be paying only $10 for the Fire TV.  [Should have bought the $35 Fire tablet too.  Why?  Because it was $35!]

OK, how to open it?

There's two small tabs to pull out on the side of the box.  After that you can slide the box out from the sleeve.

Now for the dreaded remote control.  There are reports that it's really hard to open to put in/take out the batteries.  Let's see.

The box has two layers.  The top layer is the Fire TV stick and the remote.  Removing the top layer, I see the instruction manual.  Under the instruction manual is a usb cable (for plugging into the power adapter, a USB extender, the batteries, and the power adapter.

First let me see how hard it is to remove the remote cover.  First take it out of the plastic wrapper.  I assume you gotta press down and slide it off.  Not so easy.  But I did it after a few seconds.  The trick is to push down more vertically than horizontally. Knowing that, it's pretty easy.

back later...

... that evening ...  OK, let's set it up.

Unplug the Apple TV, pull out the USB cable from the TV
Put the batteries in the remote.
Plug the power adapter in the extension cord
Plug the Fire TV USB cable into the power adapter
Plug the Fire TV Stick in the HDMI port on the TV
Plug the other end of the USB cable into the Fire TV Stick

Turn on the TV
Press the [play] button to start
OK press the play button
[OK I guess the remote got recognized cause it went to the next page]
Choose your language: English (United States)
Connect to your network
CyberHiNet
Enter password: **********
Connect
Connection successful
checking for updates
successfully registered
[they already registered the device to my account]
Yes, continue as **** *****
checking network speed
goes to the intro video [modified for the Fire TV stick vs. the Fire TV]
enable / don't enable parental controls
then it goes to the familiar Fire TV interface
The Fire TV Stick interface looks the same as the Fire TV interface except for the voice search

*** [12/25/15]

Test out Hulu by watching the Goldbergs.  Didn't notice much stutter if any.  Don't know if that's the Stick or the internet connection (which finally got cleared up on Saturday after like four weeks of the phone being down).

***

Netflix works OK too.

But doesn't appear that the CBS app runs on it.  Apparently it does run on the Fire TV Stick with voice remote.  I didn't think there was any difference between the Fire TV Stick with voice remote and without voice remote.  It kind of doesn't make sense to me.  Well, maybe they'll upgrade it later?

WatchESPN runs even without authentication.  But maybe it's because I'm on Hawaiiantelcom internet.