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Amazon launches Fire TV streaming media box


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Amazon has finally launched Amazon Fire TV to compete with Roku and Apple TV. Includes voice search, making search simple for once.

Amazon Fire TV back

Amazon Fire TV is a tiny box that plugs into your HDTV. It's the easiest way to enjoy Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, low-cost video rentals, and more. With instant access to over 200,000 TV episodes and movies, plus all your favorite subscriptions and streaming services, you can watch what you want, when you want. If you're a Prime member, you get unlimited access to thousands of popular movies and TV shows,

So what do the specs of the Amazon Fire TV  look like under the covers of this 4.5" square box that is under 1" tall? It has ethernet, Bluetooth, HDMI, optical audio and even a headphone jack.        
It has a powerful quad-core Qualcomm Krait 300 processor to 1.9 Ghz, dedicated Qualcomm Adreno 320 GPU, 2 GB of memory @533 MHZ, and dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi with a/b/g/n support. With a fast, fluid interface, high definition 1080p video, and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound

They have also built in a recommendations engine, much like Netflix, called ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) that preloads streams in the background to reduce buffering.  The more you use Fire TV the better it gets at learning.  The remote has the microphones for voice searching with noise suppression technology.

Yes they have also added games to the Amazon Fire TV  like Minecraft, The Walking Dead and an exclusive Sev Zero.  With games only being around $1.85 will this also become a gaming device?

Wait, did I mention Amazon FreeTime? Profiles and controls to set what kids have access to and watch. A new product called Amazon FreeTime Unlimited gives kids unl;imited stremaing from channels like NIckelodeon, Sesame Street and PBS Kids for $2.99 a month.

I would say go get this right now.   Amazon Fire TV  for only $99 (and I think free shipping)

See my Roku review here. I still love the Roku too.