Trusted Reviews is supported by its audience. If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

The next Amazon Fire TV may have one big feature Apple TV is missing

The new Apple TV set-top box with tvOS may have stolen the show at Apple’s ‘Hey Siri’ event on Tuesday, but it left one future-proofing feature off the table.

While the new and improved hockey puck eschewed the ability to stream 4K video, it seems the next-gen Amazon Fire TV will not.

A filing at the Federal Communications Commission in the United States suggests Amazon is looking to fit out a new set-top box with UltraHD compatibility.

The filing has been made under Quill Royall LCC for a HDMI Digital Media Receiver, with Blogger Dave Zatz (via TechHive) claiming this is an Amazon shell company.

The hint comes within a document that makes a reference to playing back a MPEG file at 4K.

The filming promises a device carrying HDMI, Bluetooth 3.0 +EDR, Bluetooth 4.1LE, a microSD reader, USB port, an Ethernet port and 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi.

Amazon is currently out of stock of the existing Fire TV set-top box and has been since the middle of last month.

That itself could be a sign a new device is on the way, perhaps alongside the rumoured $50 tablet and a couple of higher-end Kindle Fire slates.

See also:
Why Apple TV is not the console you’ve been waiting for

Has Apple missed a trick by not including 4K in the new Apple TV? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Why trust our journalism?

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

author icon

Editorial independence

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

author icon

Professional conduct

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.

Trusted Reviews Logo

Sign up to our newsletter

Get the best of Trusted Reviews delivered right to your inbox.

This is a test error message with some extra words