Staying up to date with the latest news often means having to watch the reports on time and going through parts you're not necessarily interested in. Amazon is trying to make this more engaging with a new app that curates news reports for you based on your interests.

Amazon's News app for Fire TV and Fire Tablets lets you pick which providers and categories are relevant to you, ranging from tech, politics, entertainment, and sports. It works with several major media outlets, including Al Jazeera, AOL News, Bloomberg, CBS News, Cheddar, Entertainment Weekly, HuffPost, Newsy, People, Reuters, Sports Illustrated, Wochit, and Yahoo. Once set up, you'll simply have to say "Alexa, play the news" for your Fire TV to automatically play a customized playlist of news clips based on the preferences you've set. In addition to news clips, you can also browse trending news and watch live content from CBS News and Yahoo, with more providers expected to be added in the future.

When watching content, you can see what’s next and skip the current clip if you're not interested. This can be done using the remote, through a paired Echo device, or speaking to your Fire TV Cube. Unfortunately, you'll still have to watch the ads, which will be Amazon's source of revenue behind the new app.

The News app is starting to roll out to Fire TV owners in the US today but may take a few weeks to appear on all American devices. In any case, you won't need to download it manually and should just wait for it to show up on your device.

Amazon will also make its app available on Fire tablets soon, providing the same experience it's built for TVs. There is no release date yet, but it seems the mobile software will only support video content. Thankfully, both TV and tablet versions will be able to sync content and preferences, letting watch the latest news on the most convenient screen for you.

Source: FireTV Blog