The 4K one is much faster (irrespective of display resolution) than its predecessors. I really like it.
A ‘bias’ towards some companies exist here as there’s an understanding of the underlying business model, their disregard for data privacy and so on. Most tech companies and news outlets stand to gain nothing by educating the masses on these topics, and it will often hurt their profits as they may be a beneficiary in the overall supply chain.
The typical consumer is consuming goods and services oblivious to all of it. They care about cheap/free goods as opposed to weighing the cost it being cheap/free (they won’t know why they should care, for starters).
Those who are technically savvy and aware of what’s happening may bring attention to the underlying risks... which is what you seem to be classifying as bias.
Shouting "Alexa turn the TV off" from another part of the house when it's my daughter's bedtime is worth the entry fee! Also when my wife is in the car with her Echo Auto, she can say "announce that I'm coming home" and that message will play on the TV (and convert it to text as well). Ps. we didn't know the FireTV did this when we bought it. It's quite nice finding these features as you use other Alexa devices.
I've not experienced much in the way of lagging or unresponsiveness. Note that they just released a major update.
I really, really want someone to release a Chromecast-like device that isn't Amazon or Google, though.
The latest Chromecast with Google TV barely works without granting Google access to a whole bunch of your private data. For example, you need to enable Web & App Activity across your entire Google account to use normal Chromecast features.
I will pay good money for a device that uses the castv2 protocol and doesn't siphon my data to Google's servers just so I can watch videos on my TV.
(I'm saying, don't necessarily blame only the hardware)
There is a fix for the Disney+ pause issue: Got to Settings -> Display -> Sounds -> Audio -> Dolby Digital Output and turn it off. Obviously that's crap if you want Dolby Digital Output, but for some reason it fixes the issue.
I don't actually have a problem with the Firestick as a whole, seems responsive enough for the services I use, but Disney really needs to up their game, it's the only one I have an issue with.