Competition is good, but it sounds like this will have to mature a bit before it's a legit Roku/Apple TV competitor. It already has more functionality than the Chromecast, but that's in a subcategory all its own.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/02/amazon-announces-android-powered-streaming-stick/ Amazon announces Fire TV, an android-powered streaming set-top box We've been waiting for it for quite sometime, but now Amazon is finally ready to make its play for the living room. Fire TV is not a barebones device like the Chromecast, it's a powerful Android-driven platform with ties to the broader Amazon ecosystem. Inside the slim black plastic box is a quad-core CPU with a full 2GB of RAM -- that makes it more akin to a high-end smartphone than your typical streaming device. And its incredibly slim, shorter than a dime and with barely enough clearance for the small selection of ports around back, which includes the standard HDMI as well as optical audio and Ethernet. The interface is incredibly image heavy. Browsing through the Amazon video store is basically just scrolling through an endless barrage of movie posters presented in a moving 3D bar. And, at least during the demo, the hardware churned through the slick UI with nary a hiccup in sight. But far more impressive was how quick videos were to load. Pressing play on almost any video instantaneously launched the movie or show. And we mean instantaneously. There was no pause, lag or loading screen -- it's impressive to say the least. Developing... And, true to the company's word, this is not a closed ecosystem. It's powered by Android and HTML, which should make porting apps extremely simple. The device will launch with access to Hulu and Prime (obviously) but other partners will be added over time. Including Netflix, Plex, and NBA Gametime if the demo screens are to be believed. You can obviously control the Fire TV with the buttons on your remote, but you can also use voice control. Inside the remote is a microphone which captures your searches, sends them to the Amazon cloud, deciphers them and tells the Fire TV what to pull up. And it does all of this incredibly quickly, at least as fast as Google Now. 39 Comments Share -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Unique Geek" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/theuniquegeek. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
