Amazon’s Fire TV is not the first box to be a hot streamer… if you know what I mean. A Florida-based company launched the original FyreTV video streamer in 2008 and a followup product in 2009. We reviewed it and concluded that it was an impressive device even if it was just for porn.
FyreTV is still around and Amazon may have a bit of trouble: FireTV.com (NSFW. Seriously. Don’t click.) doesn’t head over to Amazon’s page but instead forwards to something decidedly less family-friendly.
The FyreTV porn streamer launched in the early days of video streaming. In 2008 and early 2009, Netflix was still dabbling with the market with a partnership with Roku and Vudu was trying to find its footing. But as Doug showed in our video review, porn streaming was alive and well even in those dark days before ubiquitous web video.
Thankfully for Amazon, FireTV seems to have a kid-friendly SEO and doesn’t show up with Fyre TV. That said, a tip of the hat to Fyre for leading the way in enjoyable streaming content for the masses.