Amazon fire TIV Cube is a crazy little hybrid of a device, a mashup of an Amazon Echo Dot and a regular old (OK, not that old ) Amazon Fire TV. As such, it's got basically the same internals as the Fire TV pendant. And as such , that means it can actually do a good bit more than what you get out of the box.
For example: The Amazon Fire TV Cube has a full Bluetooth stack, meaning you can hook up all kinds of things to it.
Amazon Fire TV Cube and headphones
The most obvious accessory is headphones. Fire TV Cube has the all-important A2DP profile, which is pretty much standard on every phone and Bluetooth headset you can buy these days.
Why is that important for a device that's tethered to a television? First is that it allows you to employ private listening. That is, you can hook up some headphones and pipe the audio directly into your earholes, without disturbing anyone around you. (That's a blessing when you have kids, or when you tend to stay up later than someone sharing your bed.)
And second is that remember Amazon Fire TV Cube is a portal into Amazon Music — we're not just talking movies and TV shows here. And music quite often means headphones. It's not quite Led Zeppelin IV, Side 2 on vinyl, but headphones are still almost always better, right?
Amazon Fire TV Cube and keyboards and mouses
The next Bluetooth profile you should care about is the Human Interface Device profile, or HID. And that's just a fancy way of saying "keyboard, mouse, and remote control."
That's right, you can use a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse with a Fire TV Cube.
And this is one of those things that's worth thinking about. For as great as voice control can be, it also can still be slow to use, and it's definitely distracting in the middle of a movie. Or maybe it's an accessibility thing. Point is, there's nothing wrong with typing.
Leaving a mouse laying around the living room is a little weird, though, so we tend to gravitate toward keyboard/trackpad combinations — you can get a decent one on Amazon for about $25 .
Also: Third-party remote controls fall into this category. If you're looking for a good universal remote control to use with your Fire TV Cube, we've got a full list .
Amazon Fire TV Cube and game controllers
Finally, there's the fact that an Amazon Fire TV Cube is a decent little gaming device. Casual gaming, to be sure — this ain't an Xbox. But there's still a lot of fun to be had with a Fire TV Cube, and that means it's worth looking at a Bluetooth game controller.
Another reason to have one of these around? It's a great secondary remote control should the first one go missing. Which, uh, happens.
