question

Willie L asked Apr 5, '14

Amazon Fire TV and USB Host Permissions

One of the things introduced in Android 4.2 was the ability for some Android devices (particularly Android tablets) to act as hosts for other USB devices. I connected a USB Serial device to the new Amazon Fire TV, and ran a Google developer sample app called USBProber to check its status. USBProber was able to find the device and return its properties; it was also able to detect the device insertion and removal events. However, any attempt to open the devices fails with a "device requires user permission to access" exception. On generic Android pseudo-tablet devices, when a device requests access to a USB device in its manifest, the OS prompts the user for permission to allow the app to take control of the hosted USB device, either upon insertion of the device, or later when an app explicitly requests it. The new Amazon Fire TV does not prompt the user to give permission to allow an app to control a USB device, and this is a problem, as there are a number of projects where I would like to control devices from my TV via a USB serial port. One example would be the "Aeon Labs Z-Wave Z-Stick Series 2 USB Dongle" that I also purchased from Amazon. My question then is, what is status of USB Host Mode support for the Amazon Fire TV? Given that most of the functionality is working, the behavior exhibited is either a bug or oversight. But full support for USB Host Mode is very important for this new product, as most other Android PCs based on Android 4.2 (and there are a lot of them) work properly with regards to USB Host Mode.

fire tv

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Bipin@Amazon answered Apr 9, '14

No USB functionality is officially supported by FireTV at this point. Having said that, most devices (specifically keyboards and gaming controllers) do work.

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Equipment Buyer answered Apr 9, '14

Well this is a REALLY important feature for our app we are working to port to Fire TV from GoogleTV Currently in GoogleTV we can access USB easily. Our plan was to sell/promote Fire TV for our application if we can get it to work. Fire TV blows Google TV specs away by a mile but it sucks if you cannot use them. PLEASE push this to the top of the pile for management to see. The possibilities with Fire TV are tremendous if you will unlock some of these features. I am available for contact if need be. Just email me using my Amazon email address. Thank you, Michael

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tradeveloper answered Apr 9, '14

Hi Bipin, I am trying to port a an existing android program, designed for Google Tv, to Fire Tv. Our program currently requires write access to USB drive mounted on the Fire Tv device. I was trying to find a way to write to a USB drive mounted on the FireTv device, but I have not been able to do it. Do you know if this functionality is currently available or if there is plan for it? Thanks, TRADeveloper

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Sujoy@Amazon answered Apr 14, '14

Moving it to Fire TV forum

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Sujoy@Amazon answered Apr 14, '14

Hi all, Thank you for taking time to give us valuable feedback. We have shared this with internal appropriate team. lease stay tuned on Mobile App Distribution Portal or Blogs ( https://developer.amazon.com/blog/index.html) for any updates related to this.

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Jon R. Helms answered Apr 15, '14

I would also like to say that USB functionality would be great. I have a mobile version of one of my apps for Android phones that uses the SD card for storage and it would be great to be able to use a USB stick with the Fire TV for storage so I could make a mobile version of my app for Fire TV. Right now the only set-top device that has a mobile version of my app is Roku, but I'd LOVE to tell my customers to buy Fire TVs instead.

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Sujoy@Amazon answered Apr 15, '14

Noted.

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jakejiwon answered Apr 23, '14

Hello, Any update for this USB Host permission? I think this feature is very important for FireTV to extend its capability. I've checked FireTV today and found that permission file(android.hardware.usb.host.xml) is already set. Only the feature file(handheld_core_hardware.xml) is not set and I hope this was just a mistake. It's just one line and please apply in next release. You can see it here( http://stackoverflow.com/a/11992683). Thank you.

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Sujoy@Amazon answered Apr 24, '14

Thanks for the feedback. I am collecting all yours feedback and sending to the concerned team for their consideration. Still we did not hear anything from the team. Once I have an update I will post back.

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jakejiwon answered May 11, '14

Hello Sujoy, Did you got any update regarding this? I wonder if the concerned team is under discussion of it or dismissed it for now. I don't think it takes long time to consider.... Thank you. Best regards, Jake

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