Today, Amazon announced the release of the Amazon Fire TV Stick, a bite-sized version of the Fire TV set-top box meant to compete with the likes of Chromecast and the Roku Streaming Stick.
The stick boasts some pretty impressive stats for a small dongle with a USB connector sticking out one end. Sporting a dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage, Amazon brags that the Fire TV Stick has 50% more processing power than Chromecast and twice the memory. Against the Roku Streaming Stick, the Fire TV Stick has six times as much processing power and a full 32 times as much storage.
The Amazon Fire TV Stick is available for $39, cheaper than the Roku stick but just slightly more expensive than Chromecast. For the next two days, however, Prime members can take advantage of a special $19 reduced price.
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The Fire TV Stick offers the same kinds of services as Amazon Fire TV only in a less obtrusive package. The stick offers instant access to video streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, WatchESPN and others. The device also includes ASAP, Advanced Streaming and Prediction, which guesses which videos you'll want to watch next and buffers them in advance, allowing you to jump right in. The stick comes with a remote control for easy navigation, although people who miss the voice search function of Amazon Fire TV can still use their smartphone as a remote with a free app download.
The Fire TV Stick comes with even more functionality for owners of Fire mobile devices. These Fire phones and tablets can easily fling media to the Fire TV Stick if you want a bigger screen for your movie or just want to be able to use your device for something else. You can also use the Fire TV Stick to mirror your tablet or phone display if you have a Fire device or another smart device with Miracast capabilities.
The Amazon Fire TV Stick comes with a month of Amazon Prime and a month of Netflix, so you can start streaming right away from two of the biggest media streaming libraries out there.