Amazon launched a new streaming and video game device on Wednesday to compete with Google, Apple and Roku. The device costs $99 and is available now in the US.
The new device, dubbed Amazon Fire TV, is a small black colored set-top box that allows streaming of online video content to televisions. Amazon asserts its Fire TV device is better in speed, performance and search functions when compared to other streaming services.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO, said “Tiny box, huge specs, tons of content, incredible price — people are going to love Fire TV.”
The device features 2GB of RAM, a dedicated GPU, and an Adreno 320 graphics engine which processes 57 billion floating point instructions per second.
The Fire TV, which runs on Google’s Android operating system, is powered by a quad core processor and packs a Bluetooth remote, which lets users conduct voice-enabled searches. The device offers music channels such as Pandora and “Free Time.”
Fire TV launches with a number of video apps including Netflix, HuluPlus, ESPN, Vevo, Crackle, Flixster, and other streaming channels in addition to Amazon Prime instant video. The device also comes with an ASAP feature, a recommendations algorithm that preloads media based on the stuff users watch to reduce buffering.
The new streaming device will feature thousands of free and paid games like Minecraft Pocket Edition, The Walking Dead, RipTide 2, Sev Zero, Asphalt Airbourne 8, and NBA 2K. Games can be played using a Fire game controller, dubbed Voila that costs around $39.99.
Amazon is yet to announce the device’s UK launch date.
