By Briana Hayes
Staff Writer
Amazon is now competing to provide people with the ability to watch any television episode anywhere and everywhere.
While people once had to wait patiently every week to watch their show and if they missed it they either had to wait 24 hours for it to appear on the television network’s website, or run the risk of just missing a week of the show, now a continuous stream of shows can be viewed.
Amazon created Amazon Fire TV, which is similar to Roku or Apple TV in that it can stream from Netflix or HuluPlus. Fire TV is a small box that plugs it into the HDTV.
Fire TV is comprised of very large hardware specs and a very strong quad-core processor. Other features include 2 GB of memory, dual-antenna Wi-Fi, GPU, and a dual band.
The dual-antenna Wi-Fi is a pair of identical antennas on a wireless-router equipped device that serves the purpose of eliminating signal fading and dead spots. It works by providing two different points for transmission and then employs the better one.
In addition, the new product features a 1080p video that is high definition and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. These two aspects add to the overall quality of the product and experience of the consumer.
In order to ensure a good experience and to compete with other streaming devices, Fire TV includes a voice search.
Fire TV allows the consumer to speak the genre, actor, movie title, or television show into the remote and search results will appear. This eliminates the action of scrolling and typing one letter at a time.
Additional features that put Fire TV in the running include the addition of games. There are free and paid games that have an average price of $1.85.
Amazon is also offering special features for its Prime members. While Prime members already receive priority shipping and cheaper prices, now they can also receive access to tons of popular shows and movies such as “Downton Abbey” and “The Americans.” This is in addition to over 200,000 TV episodes and movies already available.
Amazon’s Fire TV is being sold for $99 on Amazon.com. For under $100 people can have access to movies, shows, games, and songs.
While this is not a new concept, it demonstrates the good business of instant streaming movies and television shows.
Fire TV is just a variation on existing technology, but if you are an Amazon fan and would like instant access to their services, then it appears to be worth it. Fire TV is an alternate for Apple TV, since Amazon utilizes Android instead of Apple.
Compared to Apple TV, Fire TV is more powerful, more beneficial for gamers, and includes more access to Amazon’s services. However, if you are a gamer the controller is an additional $40.
While Fire TV has the potential to be a successful product, by serving as competition, hopefully it allows other streaming devices such as Roku and Apple TV to improve their products as well.
