Amazon today announced the all-new Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote for streaming TV shows and movies. The $40 device plugs into the HDMI port on the back of your TV and accepts voice commands via Alexa. You can ask it play TV shows and movies, launch apps and more. It’s the more compact version of Amazon’s Fire TV, which has the same feature set but cost more. The main thing it doesn’t support is 4K streaming.
The new Fire TV Stick claims to be up to 30 percent faster than last year’s model. It now includes a more powerful quad-core processor and even faster Wi-Fi. It works best for Amazon Prime members ($100/yr), which includes a lot of free movies and music.
New Update Makes It Easier To Browse and Discover Content – Coming Soon
Coming later this year, a free software update for Fire TV will give customers a new on-screen experience that makes finding what to watch next even easier and more enjoyable. Fire TV will present a cinematic experience, offering video trailers and content screenshots to help customers access the content they want more quickly – without the need to open and close multiple apps. Finding and enjoying apps and games will be easier too with new support for a customizable apps list on the home screen. Accessibility improvements will also be included, allowing customers to use Fire TV and any compatible apps with the VoiceView screen reader. These features will be available for all Fire TV customers as a free, over-the-air update, starting with the new Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and latest generation Fire TV later this year.
Features:
- Access to over 7,000 channels, apps, and Alexa skills and more than 300,000 movies and TV episodes, including content from Netflix, NBC, HBO, Fox, ESPN, Disney Channel, Prime Video and CBS All Access
- Compatible with Sling TV to watch live TV for a monthly fee.
- Alexa powered voice search responds instantly. Just say “find suspense thrillers” or “launch Hulu” and Alexa will respond. Fire TV will also show you the best viewing options – watch, stream, rent, or buy – to help you choose apps and channels based on convenience and value. For Amazon Video content, you can also control playback with just your voice; just ask Alexa to “go back 30 seconds” or “jump ahead 2 minutes.”
- Just ask Alexa for other questions, for example to check local movie times, create shopping lists, play music, get the news and weather, order a pizza or a ride, and much more.
- Fast quad-core processor, 802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi and Advanced Streaming and Prediction (ASAP) for Amazon Video, you can rely on fast, fluid performance without buffering.
- Support for High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC), giving customers more 1080p HD streams from their existing internet connection.
- Effortless setup. Just plug the Fire TV Stick into an HDTV, attach the power adapter, connect to Wi-Fi, and start streaming in minutes.
- The Fire TV Stick is also portable, making it easy to take it almost anywhere and watch all your favorite content away from home.
Price and Availability
The all-new Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote will be available on October 20, 2016 for $39.99 at www.amazon.com/fire-tv-stick. Pre-orders are now being accepted.
Eligible customers who purchase online or from a participating retailer and activate their device by October 31 will also receive a free content bundle. This limited-time offer includes one month of Sling TV and two months of Hulu (Limited Commercials) for new subscribers, and a $10 credit for Amazon Video – a value of up to $65.
