At an event in New York City today, Amazon showed off a new streaming set-top box, Amazon Fire TVfor $99. Not content to be stuck as an app, Amazon's entrance into your physical living room isn't aimed just at Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast, but also Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox One.
The thin rectangular box runs a quad-core processor, like that found in high-end smartphones. It has dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi, 2 GB of storage, and full 1080p support. The sleek accompanying remote is Bluetooth. It's shipping today.
The biggest threat to Apple TV and Roku? The new Fire Game Controller, which will cost an additional $39.99.
Vice President of Amazon Games Michael Frazzini says thousands of games will be available on Fire TV next month. Amazon is partnering with Sega, Disney, EA and more. Yep, it's got Minecraft (unlike Oculus ever will). Amazon will also be developing its own games, both for Fire TV and the Kindle Fire HDX.
These games will be available as in-app purchases, in keeping with Amazon's business model of using hardware to push you to spend money in its marketplace.
Perhaps the most impressive new feature is voice search, which Vice President of Kindle Peter Larsen insists "actually works." As they say on Twitter, "wow, if true." In the demo, IMDB ratings popped up when searching for specific movies.
The Fire TV box plays music and displays lyrics to whatever you're listening to on TV. So, if you buy this you'll have no excuse for singing "wrapped up like a douche" ever again.
The new Fire TV addresses the frustrations that irk customers about Roku, Chromecast, and streaming apps like Netflix, according to Peter Larsen. He sites search, lagginess, and "closed-environments" as prime examples of annoyances with the Fire TV's competitors.
"It drives me bananas that I can't watch my Prime Instant Video on my Apple TV," Larsen said today.
The Fire TV is an "open-ecosystem," unlike Apple TV. It will stream Hulu, Netflix, WatchESPN, MLB, Crackle, MLB, Vimeo, NBA, and YouTube (but notably will not support HBO Go, at least at launch).
This follows on the heels of the announcement earlier this week of six new original shows for the company (including one starring Gael Garcia Bernal).
What the Fire TV very importantly is not is a free web streaming service, which was rumored in the past few weeks.
It remains to be seen, of course, if the Fire TV's features offer any real advantage over other streaming options running Amazon's Instant Video app.
