Amazon finally gave full details to its Fire TV Stick to go head on with Google’s extremely popular Chromecast. A bit late to the game but Amazon has revealed why it was worth the wait. The current backorder signifies its popularity which will complement its Prime subscription. If you order the Amazon Fire TV stick today, you will not receive it in time for Christmas but in mid-Jan. The date will likely slip as you approach the holidays which is a huge dissapointment. The price is $39 which is comparable to Chromecast’s $35. Amazon Fire TV stick includes a remote which is a nice add on.
Here are other features listed on Amazon’s website.
- Four times the storage capacity and double the memory of Chromecast.
- Dual core processor and one gigabyte of memory
- Huge selection of apps which is synonymous to Chromecast
- Huge library of movies, tv shoes, music, and games through Amazon Prime
- Ability to stream slideshows of personal photos and videos through your amazon cloud account
- Instant streaming with its ASAP technology
- Dedicated remote
- Easy to use app with voice search through its Android app (iOS app not yet available)
- Mirror function. Share what is on your tablet or phone to your TV.
- Only requirement is that you have an HDTV and an available HDMI port on your TV.
Another problem with Chromecast is it’s inability to let you bypass hotel or college dorm captive portal Internet access. Apparently, Amazon has a solution to this and it is in the pipeline.
You can play simple games with your remote but not sure how much use this will have.
The Android app which will let you voice search. iOS / Apple app coming soon.
Stream directly from your Amazon music library of stream Prime music which has a wide variety of music available on demand. You also have the option to play music from other apps such as vevo, Pandora, iheartradio, and others.