Amazon Fire TV Cube Media Player with 2nd Gen Alexa Voice Remote

I would like to start this review by saying thank you Fire TV Cube! I am a proud Cord getter from a cord cutter earlier and you made this as a possibility for me (now I have specific reasons to get a cable, I will explain later, and how Cube helped me to decide in its favor). Hence I would like to give it five star due to below reasons. I have divided my review into two parts Short term and Long Term feedback. Hence, to get a full understanding, please read entire review. 1. Know what you are getting in Short term! This is a voice control for multiple source you can see on your TV, it can switch sources, change volume levels, even if you have a sound bar or external speaker, change channels, Switch TV on and off etc. These are its basic functions. If these works for you, you are getting at least what this machine is supposed to do with you in short term. And this perfectly worked for me on my Samsung TV, JBL Sound Bar and Sony Blue Ray Player, TV Antenna. Also because it has IR Blaster it is not a remote control, hence don't set your expectations as such at least in short term. It is NOT remote, it is just a different experience. 2. Long term! Cube just grows on you over a period of time. Cube has a learning curve and you may come across so many features that it will take some time to learn all of them. Now since this is not a review for standard Alexa features which you get from Cube as well, I will try to stay away from it and just focus on core Cube features from a TV control standpoint. Below are my experiences and I have tried to stay away from technical features as I wanted to make sure I put a technical skill of Cube into perspective of daily experience. 1) I have kids in my home and they keep themselves glued to TV for lot of time . Hence just the ability for me to say to cube to Switch off or on TV is return of investment. If we go on table for dinner and instead of trying to find remote, I can say to Alexa Cube to just switch off. And sometimes I do take advantage of forcefully switching off TV or pausing it when I need kids attention (I wish Alexa can recognize or take my commands over kids sometime when we run into disagreement and if voice parental control can be added as a feature in future - again my Wishlist is long :)) . Hence it certainly works for me as a parent. 2) Ability for Alexa cube to hear from far is phenomenal. In fact I have a very large living space where I have my TV and cube, sometimes I will be calling cube approx from 30 feet away and it just responds like I was talking in its ear. This feature is of great help, and acts as hands free for simple commands like "Alexa, Mute", “Turn off TV”, “Switch on Patio Lights”, etc.. 3) Great control even for very small kids: Specially my younger one wakes up 6 am in morning when it is sometimes too early for me to wake up and put something for him on TV, when he sometimes demands it specially during weekends. He is 4 year and now he can put his favorite TV show on his own just by saying few words. He does not need to fondle with remote where he hardly understands any buttons, He puts Netflix on his own like "Alexa, play Super why on Netflix". 4) Proud Cord Getter: Now we were encouraged by our 4 Year son putting his favorite episodes on his own in Netflix. But we wanted to limit his Netflix and wanted him to watch live TV shows etc. which are more informational in nature and well programmed towards kids overall entertainment and knowledge like wild life, science etc. and it was only available on TV channels. Hence, we researched a lot what works best with cube if we get cable. After comparing between Direct TV, Sling and Hulu - and we decide on Hulu just due to its channel selection and compatibility with cube. And we were pleasantly surprised. Now if I just say "Alexa, Tune in to Universal Kids on Hulu" - Cube will switch on TV, Open Hulu App, and change to Universal Kids on Hulu". My 4 year son could repeat the same statement and it worked absolutely perfectly. This brought cable and live TV shows into our life (where earlier we just used to watch from local antenna as it was so frustrating to scan through multiple channels that we simply got rid of cable earlier). Now I can watch my favorite TV channels without fondling with remote, it works with kids as well. And now did I tell you that we are totally remote free. Between I didn’t mention earlier I have a 11-year-old and he is like a pro talking to Cube for various functions (few of them are complex maneuvers you get to know only when you spend some time). He found out, Cube software was recently updated where it can mimic standard remote functions like Scroll Up, Down, Right, Select (apart for other options like in certain cases it shows options a number options). Hence, if he is using Cube he doesn’t needs remote at all. Technical Spec: Samsung Led HDTV, JBL Soundbars, Sony Blue Ray and Xbox. Internet at 300 MBps from ATT U-Verse. Cube is connected on cable with internet router for best performance. I am first few buyers of cube as I booked it in advance before it was released.