Amazon.com has launched today a video streaming device known as Fire TV, which is is available starting today in US for $99. This device can be plugged into your HDTV for easy and instant access to Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, SHOWTIME, low-cost video rentals, and much more. This device competes directly with Apple TV and Roku 3.
Amazon has listed the folowing salient features of Fire TV:
- This device has Voice search capability. You are required to simply speak the name of a movie, TV show, actor, director, or genre into the remote, and you’re done. No more hunting and pecking in an alphabet grid.
- You can access instantly content of Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, YouTube, and more, plus the largest selection of videos for rent and purchase–over 200,000 movies and TV episodes from Amazon Instant Video. Plus, listen to music with Amazon MP3, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn.
- Fire TV features a quad-core processor with 3x the processing power of Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku 3, and a dedicated Adreno 320 graphics engine that processes 57 billion floating point instructions per second, for lightning-fast graphics and excellent fluidity. Fire TV comes with 2GB of memory, 4x the memory of Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku 3.
- With dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi, Fire TV streams in up to full-HD 1080p and supports HDMI and optical audio-out, enabling up to 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus surround sound.
- Fire TV comes automatically pre-registered so you can immediately get started. No complicated set-up, no hassle–just plug it in and start watching.
- An exclusive new feature called ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) predicts which movies and TV episodes you’ll want to watch and buffers them for playback before you even hit play–instant start.
- High-quality, low-cost gaming–games like Minecraft, Monsters University, The Game of Life, The Walking Dead, NBA2K14, Asphalt 8, Riptide GP2, Despicable Me: Minion Rush, and more. The average price of paid games on Fire TV is $1.85. Play using your Fire TV remote, the Fire TV app for smartphones and tablets, or the optional Fire game controller.
- Amazon FreeTime revolutionizes parental controls–parents can choose what their kids see and set time limits for types of content and times of day–no more negotiating for one more show before bedtime. Customers who subscribe to FreeTime Unlimited–Amazon’s all-you-can-eat content subscription designed for kids ages 3 to 8–will get unlimited access to thousands of movies and TV shows.
- You can see all of your photos and personal videos come alive on your big-screen TV–seamless integration with Amazon’s Cloud Drive
- Fire TV runs the latest version of Fire OS “Mojito,” which is based on Android.
