Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Amazon has rolled out a software update for Vega OS.
- The update adds VPN support to the Fire TV Stick 4K Select.
- NordVPN and IPVanish are the only two VPN apps available.
Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick 4K Select, which launched in mid-October, is the company’s first Fire TV device to run on Vega OS. While it’s an affordable 4K streaming option, it has a few missing features due to the new operating system. A recent update now fixes one of the device’s previous drawbacks.
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At launch, the Fire TV Stick 4K Select did not support any Fire TV Stick-compatible VPN apps. Not a surprise, as the existing apps ran on the Android-based Fire OS. This changed over the weekend after Amazon released an update for the Linux-based Vega OS. However, there is both good news and bad news.
The good news is that NordVPN and IPVanish are now available for Fire TV Stick 4K Select users to download. The bad news is that these apps are the only two VPNs currently available. That’s not to say that other VPNs won’t follow suit. It’s just that these two providers are the only ones with apps that are compatible with Vega OS right now.
You may be wondering why you should care about VPN support on your Fire TV Stick. There are a couple of reasons why this is a big deal, one of the most notable being the circumvention of geo-blocking. Some streaming services offer different content based on where you live, as licensing agreements can differ from country to country. A VPN can connect you to a server in your desired country, so you have access to the content available in that location. The other reason is security, as VPN’s can encrypt your connection and mask your IP address for privacy.
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