As most of you will know Amazon has recently announced its own competitor to the Apple TV and Google's Chromecast. The announcement was made on 2nd April 2014 to the worlds media with mixed reception. You can find review for the competition by clicking on the links above, thanks to TechRadar for the reviews.
Streaming entertainment service make for a wonderful way to view online content through your large communal television in your home. Apple has been doing this for a long time and Google are just starting out. Check out the analysis of the market for streaming services below, most insightful.
Michelle Fleury, BBC business correspondent, New York
Forget ratings wars, the biggest battle in your living room is for the TV. To emphasise the point, at its launch event in New York, Amazon decorated the room with comfy armchairs, bowls of sweets and even a popcorn machine. Fire TV, Amazon's Android based streaming gadget allows you to access content online. With its matt black finish, the slim design is reminiscent of Apple TV and is supposedly three times more powerful. The remote control has a microphone built in so that you can do voice searches. This worked smoothly even in a loud room full of journalists.Amazon's set top box may not be revolutionary but it does give customers an alternative to Apple TV, Roku and Google's Chromecast.
To be able to shout audio commands at my TV is further my love of technology. As yet no such capability exists in my living room. Excluding my iPad and iPhone with Siri functionality for voice commands I am left with using hands to thumb the remote control. I cannot wait to see how this works in practicality.
Very nice to see competition opening up a bit in the living room. Though to be honest I want more freely roaming content than I want more hardware. My happiness about the Amazon Fire TV is that this is another step by a rival of Apple's to develop a complete ecosystem for you to run your digital life. As a heavily invested Apple user I am linked so painfully to their ecosystem for my hardware, software and digital content. Though as time goes on to have alternatives to Apple other than Microsoft Windows is very pleasing indeed. I am a Google account holder but not very embedded in their ecosystem since i stopped using any Android hardware.
Amazon might just be the one to consider given the amount of information they have about me through my buying habits, they will likely learn a lot about me through my entertainment needs too. Such a streaming system from Amazon will surely link itself Amazon Instant Video and other services to become something truly brilliant. Apple TV is not getting any cleverer as time goes on. They seem almost clueless about what I actually watch. I cannot speak for Chromecast yet as I do not have one.
Owning more than one set top box might seem a little pointless given that so many of them seem to be all trying to steal each others contracts for exclusive rights to content. Childish behaviour in my view but I guess businesses want a way to secure a following and this seems like a sure fire way to do it.
In summary, good luck to Amazon for their Fire TV. I look forward to the day it comes to Europe. Perhaps by then it will become more appealing to me. They might have even learned how to control other things in my living room by then. An Amazon controlled back massager or Amazon Coffee Table? Something to ponder over.