Amazon is unleashing loads of new products lately, and nothing will stop it. After launching its Echo speakers in France, the online retail giant has unveiled a new TV product that takes the form of a cube.
In addition to its Echo products, Amazon also markets reading lamps, tablets, and devices for television. This week this family welcomed a newcomer: the Fire TV Cube. It is a streaming box doped with 4K and Alexa.
A box to do everything
Acronyms and technologies are all over the Fire TV Cube. The device can thus broadcast 4K HDR videos (up to 60 frames/second), it ensures the support of HDMI CEC as well as Dolby Atmos, for the best-equipped households. The box also incorporates a speaker, all running on a quad-core processor at 1.5 GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage.
Amazon slides into the box an Ethernet adapter to connect to the Micro USB port of the box, as well as an infrared extension. If the remote control allows controlling the Fire TV Cube, the primary interface remains the voice. Moreover, so, Alexa! A button is present on the remote control, but the box contains 8 microphones that await the slightest vocal command from the viewer.
Alexa being part of the party, the assistant can naturally control the content of a whole set of streaming services (including Amazon Prime Video of course), but also the audio and video devices of the house and a vast home automation ecosystem.
The Fire TV Cube seems, on paper at least, really interesting and complete. It builds on Alexa’s success, of course, but Amazon hasn’t rested on its laurels by adding some technologies. All will be available as of June 21, at a price of $119. The manufacturer has not specified when the device will be available in Europe.