Amazon Fire TV Cube review: Neat hardware, but Alexa can't keep up

Shortly after setting up Amazon's Fire TV Cube streaming box, I temporarily lost the remote control. In theory, this shouldn't have been a problem. Amazon says its $120 Fire TV Cube is primarily a hands-free device that you can control with Alexa voice commands, and I knew Alexa would at least let me turn on the TV, control the volume, and start watching video in apps like Amazon Prime Video and PlayStation Vue without needing the remote. Still, it didn't take long with my Fire TV Cube review unit to uncover voice control's many blind spots. While the hardware does a fine job of recognizing voice commands, Alexa often fails at searching for content, is inconsistent at controlling video playback, and doesn't yet work with a large number of apps.