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Amazon Fire TV’s new interface is now rolling out in the US

Amazon is rolling out a new user interface for its Fire TV streaming devices, designed to put more focus on the content, while also simplifying navigation. The update, which is initially available to Fire TV owners in the U.S., represents the first major Fire TV redesign in years.

The changes arrive after an explosion of streaming content has made it more difficult to know what’s available to watch on which service, requiring streaming platforms like Fire TV to serve more as a discovery hub than just a tool to launch streaming apps.

The company first previewed the new design at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, showing off an interface intended to make Fire TV feel less cluttered. The updated design features rounded corners, varied gradients, consistent typography, and increased spacing between content, and it adds more space for pinned apps.

Image Credits:Amazon

Previously, Fire TV users could only pin six apps to the home screen. Now, with smaller app icons, the update expands that to 20 slots for apps, accommodating services like Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, and other top streamers.

In addition, the navigation bar at the top of the screen has been simplified into categories marked with simple icons, including  Movies, TV, Live TV, Sports, and News. The search button is also easily within reach to the left of the Home tab.

New Fire TV UI Sports
Image Credits:Amazon

Within these tabs, Fire TV surfaces the content you’re already watching and displays other suggestions drawn from the services you’ve subscribed to, organized in rows labeled “For You.” The tabs also highlight free movies to stream, top movies and shows, and other paid content you might enjoy.

The Live TV tab, meanwhile, centralizes access to the live content that’s available across your streaming services, plus broadcast or cable TV, if you subscribe or use an antenna.

New Fire TV UI Games
Image Credits:Amazon

Less frequently used features live under a three-line “hamburger” menu on the left, and include Games, Art & Photos, the Appstore, Music Video & Audio, a universal watchlist called “My Stuff,” Settings, and other options.

Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa+ is also built into the new interface, allowing users to ask questions on almost any topic, not just movies and TV. Queries can be asked using natural language, and Fire TV owners can refine them or ask follow-up questions as they chat with the AI assistant. The AI can also interact with on-screen content. For instance, you could select a movie tile and say, “Tell me more about that one.” You can even ask nuanced questions like, “Find me more movies that have the same look.”

New Fire TV UI Browse Screen
Image Credits:Amazon

Amazon recently announced that Alexa+ is available to customers with a Prime subscription as an included perk. Others can choose to pay for access separately.

The new user interface launches first on the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Gen), and the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series in the U.S. This spring, it will roll out to more countries and devices, including the latest generation of the Fire TV 4K streaming players and TVs such as the Fire TV 2-Series, Fire TV 4-Series, and Fire TV Omni QLED Series, as well as TVs made by partners like Hisense, Insignia, Panasonic, and TCL.

The update is also available on the new Amazon Ember Artline, a new series of televisions that can make your TV screen look like a framed work of art when not in use.

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Cohere launches a family of open multilingual models

Enterprise AI company Cohere launched a new family of multilingual models on the sidelines of the ongoing India AI Summit. The models, dubbed Tiny Aya, are open-weight — meaning their underlying code is publicly available for anyone to use and modify — support over 70 languages, and can run on everyday devices like laptops without requiring an internet connection.

The model, launched by the company’s research arm Cohere Labs, supports South Asian languages such as Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi. 

The base model contains 3.35 billion parameters — a measure of its size and complexity. Cohere has also launched TinyAya-Global, a version fine-tuned to better follow user commands, for apps that require broad language support. Regional variants round out the family: TinyAya-Earth for African languages; TinyAya-Fire for South Asian languages; and TinyAya-Water for Asia Pacific, West Asia, and Europe.

Image Credits: Cohere

“This approach allows each model to develop stronger linguistic grounding and cultural nuance, creating systems that feel more natural and reliable for the communities they are meant to serve. At the same time, all Tiny Aya models retain broad multilingual coverage, making them flexible starting points for further adaptation and research,” the company said in a statement.

Cohere noted that these models, which were trained on a single cluster of 64 H100 GPUs (a type of high-powered chip by Nvidia) using relatively modest computing sources, are ideal for researchers and developers building apps for audiences that speak native languages. The models are capable of running directly on devices, so developers can use them to power offline translation. The company noted that it built its underlying software to suit on-device usage, requiring less computing power than most comparable models.

Image Credits: Cohere

In linguistically diverse countries like India, this kind of offline-friendly capability can open up a diverse set of applications and use cases without the need for constant internet access.

The models are available on HuggingFace, the popular platform for sharing and testing AI models, and the Cohere Platform. Developers can download them on HuggingFace, Kaggle, and Ollama for local deployment. The company is also releasing training and evaluation datasets on HuggingFace and plans to release a technical report detailing its training methodology.

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The startup’s CEO, Aidan Gomez, said last year that the company plans to go public “soon.” According to CNBC, the company ended 2025 on a high note, posting $240 million in annual recurring revenue, with 50% growth quarter-over-quarter throughout the year.

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As AI jitters rattle IT stocks, Infosys partners with Anthropic to build ‘enterprise-grade’ AI agents

Indian IT giant Infosys said on Tuesday it has partnered with Anthropic to develop enterprise-grade AI agents, as automation driven by large language models reshapes the global IT services industry.

Under the partnership, Infosys plans to integrate Anthropic’s Claude models into its Topaz AI platform to build so-called “agentic” systems. The companies claim these agents will be able to autonomously handle complex enterprise workflows across industries such as banking, telecoms, and manufacturing. The tie-up was announced at India’s AI Impact Summit in New Delhi this week, which will see top executives from AI companies and Big Tech alike in attendance.

The deal comes amid fears that AI tools, especially those built by major AI labs like Anthropic and OpenAI, will disrupt India’s heavily-staffed, $280 billion IT services industry, raising questions about the future of labor-intensive outsourcing business models. Earlier this month, shares of Indian IT companies went into freefall after Anthropic launched a suite of enterprise AI tools that claimed to automate tasks across legal, sales, marketing and research roles.

The partnership would give Infosys, one of the world’s largest IT services businesses, access to Anthropic’s Claude models and developer tools for building AI agents tailored for large enterprises. Infosys said it would use Anthropic’s Claude Code to help write, test and debug code, and said it is already deploying the tool internally to build expertise that will be applied to client work.

Infosys also detailed how AI is contributing to its business: AI-related services generated revenue of ₹25 billion (around $275 million), or 5.5% of the company’s total revenue of ₹454.8 billion (about $5 billion) in the December quarter. Rival Tata Consultancy Services previously said its AI services generate about $1.8 billion annually, or around 6% of revenue.

For Anthropic, the partnership offers a route into heavily regulated enterprise sectors where deploying AI systems at scale requires industry expertise and governance capabilities.

“There’s a big gap between an AI model that works in a demo and one that works in a regulated industry,” said Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei. Infosys’ experience in sectors such as financial services, telecoms, and manufacturing helps bridge that gap, he said.

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Anthropic this week also opened its first India office in Bengaluru, as it seeks to expand further into the country, which has grown into the company’s second-largest market. Anthropic said India now accounts for about 6% of global Claude usage, second only to the U.S., and much of that activity is concentrated in programming.

Infosys did not disclose the timeline for deploying Claude-powered AI agents or the financial terms of the deal.

The partnership is similar to other moves by Indian IT services firms. HCLTech and OpenAI last year partnered up to help enterprises deploy AI tools at scale.

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Airbnb expands its “Reserve Now, Pay Later” globally

Airbnb said on Tuesday that it is launching its “Reserve Now, Pay Later” feature — which lets users secure bookings without immediate payment — globally. This allows users to cancel their bookings if there is a change of plans without losing money upfront.

The company launched the feature in the U.S. last year for domestic travel. Airbnb said that properties with a “flexible” or “moderate” cancellation policy are eligible for the upfront reservation. With this option, users get charged closer to their check-in date rather than at the time of booking. The feature mirrors “buy now, pay later” payment plans that have become popular in e-commerce, making expensive travel more accessible by spreading out costs. The company noted that since the launch, the feature saw 70% adoption for eligible bookings.

Image Credits: AirbnbImage Credits:Airbnb

During its earnings calls for Q4 2025, Airbnb said that the feature helped grow nights booked in the quarter.

“Reserve Now, Pay Later saw significant adoption among eligible guests in Q4. It’s also led to longer booking lead times and a mix shift towards larger entire homes, especially those with four or more bedrooms, contributing to the increase in average daily rate,” Ellie Mertz, CFO of Airbnb, said during the call.

Mertz noted that Airbnb’s overall cancellation rate jumped from 16% to 17% for the quarter, and it was higher among customers who use the upfront booking product. However, she said that this was “not hugely material relative to the broader cancellations on the platform.”

Last year, the company surveyed U.S. travelers along with Focaldata, a London-based market research and polling company. Of those surveyed, 60% of participants said that a flexible payment option is important while booking a holiday, and 55% said that would use a flexible payment option.

The company has been experimenting with pay-later products for years now. Back in 2018, Airbnb launched a product that allowed users to book a property by paying 20% or 50% of the total charges. upfront, with the rest due later. In 2023, the company partnered with fintech firm Klarna to let users pay for their stays in four installments over six weeks.

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