[kotaKat]

Yeah I know saying that in hindsight it's just going to go to the ONN sticks instead and stay within Google TV - but it solves the problem Amazon wanted which is to quickly and smartly move the problem away from themselves and onto someone else's loss leader.

(And Walmart already has started doing regionlocking to try to crack down on that, too! Taking an ONN box out of the US will error out in setup and complain it's only for sale in US/PR.)

[benbristow]

They may as well stop selling them. I doubt many people are going to buy a Fire Stick to watch Prime and Netflix when you already can on any standard Smart TV. It's harder to buy a dumb TV now than it is a smart one. Never mind if you also have a game console connected which can run the same apps. Or a set top box like Virgin Media which run apps too.

[cebert]

The nice thing about sticks is when you go on trips or vacation. You’re authenticated into all of your subscriptions already and don’t have to sign in. The convenience of using sticks they eliminate the need to sign in at hotels or other places, which is why I love them.

[mmahemoff]

Yes and combine with a travel router so you don’t have to endure logging into a wifi portal with a soft keyboard on the TV, if the stick OS even allows it. Then having to repeat the process daily due to expiration times, or as soon as you remove the key card from the hotel room slot, causing the router to power down and the TV stick to time out.

[benbristow]

Top tip, if you're in a hotel room you can often put any card like item (e.g. loyalty card) into the slot and it still works.

This works at a lot of chain hotels. Not every hotel, but a lot of them. In the UK this works in most Premier Inns and Travelodges, doesn't work in Point A hotels from experience.

Alternatively ask for two or more cards at the desk.

If the room is cleaned daily the cleaners have a tendency to remove them though. The chain hotels only tend to clean if you ask though, or on a certain few days after check-in.

Helps if you want to keep the air con on or devices powered up.

[alias_neo]

Presumably some services have issues with locale? Does anyone run a VPN to home on these devices? I'd never considered taking my Firestick on holiday but I'll definitely consider that for the future.

[mmahemoff]

Correct. Fortunately a number of streaming services are available in many regions nowadays, e.g., Netflix, Apple TV, Disney, HBO Max or whatever it’s called now.

The content may vary between regions though, e.g., you open Netflix in another country and no longer see a show you’re watching while see other ones appear. This can sometimes feel like a feature more than a bug.

[benbristow]

NordVPN have an app on the Store and so do others.

[la_oveja]

id say is a fairly niche use case, people tend to disconnect outside when going on vacation not watch netflix from the hotel.

[tracker1]

I like to travel, in particular road trips and disconnecting is often part of that. Even then, I'm not much of a nightlife person so will often still watch TV for a couple hours at night before bed.

[shermantanktop]

+1, that’s what I do. Only problem is that the HDMI port can be hard to get to.

[benbristow]

A lot of hotels I've been to recently have a HDMI port baked into the row of plugs and switches above the desk. Handy.

Might be worth getting a male to female HDMI extension cable to make it easier to plug in.