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When Google launched Chromecast final year, information technology kicked up quite a bit of interest with its ability to easily stream video (or your desktop) wirelessly from the Chrome browser or various Chrome apps. Now, Amazon is jumping on the modest device streaming railroad vehicle, with the Fire Tv set Stick. Amazon is exultation nearly the device's capabilities — it's a $xl product with a dual-core processor (of unknown blazon), 8GB of on-board storage, and 1GB of RAM. This beats the Chromecast rather handily — that device is a unmarried-core fleck with 512MB of RAM and just 2GB of storage.

With products like this, however, the real question volition be how well it actually works and how seamlessly it integrates with existing equipment. And unfortunately, that integration looks fairly airtight-off. While Google's Chromecast can run on PCs that utilize Chrome, also every bit TVs or Android devices, that aforementioned degree of flexibility isn't quite baked into Fire Boob tube Stick yet. The PR states that back up for streaming YouTube and Spotify is currently ready, just Netflix is nevertheless "coming before long." Devices that support Miracast will also piece of work with Fire Idiot box Stick, and the device comes with a remote command. It's available at present, and for the next two days — if y'all're a Prime subscriber — for $20.

FireStick chart comparison

Overall, the Kindle Fire TV Stick still appears to focus on integrating users more tightly into Amazon's own set of products. That's not a bad thing intrinsically, but we would've liked to have seen more integration with PCs and devices that aren't manufactured past Amazon. Right now, Kindle Fire Idiot box Stick seems to be decent value just if you're thoroughly plugged into the Amazon globe to start with.

Distracting from Fire Telephone'southward flame out

A cynical person might advise that Amazon'south song and dance around Fire TV Stick is actually meant to distract from the bottomless performance of Amazon'south other device launch this year, the Fire Phone. Reports today indicate that the company is sitting on unsold Fire Phone stock worth $83 million, and that'south subsequently a $170 million writedown on the production.

KindleFireTVStickThing

The Fire Television set Stick: Just marginally larger than a slice of popcorn

Nosotros've covered the Fire Telephone before, and general consensus is that while the device is a perfectly reasonable smartphone, it's a reasonable smartphone selling at an unreasonable price against competitors with meliorate-established products and a stronger overall software suite. That's non entirely Amazon's fault; much of the disparity is caused by the company's refusal to completely toe Google's party line. Amazon has responded to this criticism by slashing the cost on the Burn down Telephone in an attempt to move inventory, merely the company'southward effort to launch a loftier-finish device that might capture market share from the Samsung Galaxy or iPhone product has clearly failed.

In that location'due south no discussion nevertheless on whether Amazon will follow up with a second-generation phone, simply the company is expecting to exist deep in the carmine this year. It projects a loss of between $430 and $570 million for the unabridged fourth quarter.

Now read: Amazon deploys 10,000 robot workers, a twelvemonth after Obama's famous Amazon jobs speech