Amazon has reinstated a well-liked characteristic for the Amazon Hearth Stick after it was eliminated earlier this 12 months as a result of safety issues. This free instrument permits customers to regulate their system equally to the primary distant, which was notably helpful for many who had misplaced their bodily distant and didn’t need to purchase a brand new one. A notable benefit of the instrument was the benefit of typing usernames and search phrases utilizing a digital keyboard.
In April, Amazon withdrew this characteristic after safety consultants highlighted that it may probably permit hackers to take management of another person’s Hearth TV. In contrast to the unaffected app, this instrument provided a web-based various that might be accessed through a QR code, enabling customers to regulate their system from an internet browser with out putting in further apps on their cellphone.
Nonetheless, this instrument’s capability to perform outdoors the identical community because the Hearth TV system raised issues about safety vulnerabilities, as hackers may exploit it to put in malicious apps in the event that they bodily accessed the QR code.
After engaged on an answer, Amazon has relaunched the instrument with enhanced safety measures. The brand new setup course of contains on-screen prompts that require customers to confirm connection makes an attempt after scanning the QR code. That is achieved through the use of the standard distant to manually click on on a “Sure” button and getting into a novel four-digit code displayed on each the TV display and the cell system.
Whereas this improved safety measure addresses the sooner issues, it could pose a problem for many who have misplaced their bodily distant, as it’s obligatory to substantiate the connection. Nonetheless, customers can nonetheless make the most of the app-based distant management as a substitute.
To make use of the Amazon Hearth TV internet distant, customers have to first use the bodily distant to open the web-based distant, then open the keyboard and scan the QR code that seems and ultimately, go to keyboard.amazonfiretvapp.com to finish the setup.
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