 The fight for your living room is heating up. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sony, and small players like Roku all want to take over your television and sell you movies and TV shows. The new Amazon Fire TV is a set-top box that plugs into your TV and connects to your home's Wi-Fi or Ethernet network. It's not much different in appearance from an Apple TV or Roku 3, though it's a little thinner and a little larger than either of those. But the hardware design matters little. This thing is designed to sit on your home entertainment center and get out of the way. You control the Fire TV with its included Bluetooth remote. It's pretty similar to both Apple and Roku's remotes and offers basic controls for navigating the interface and playing your media. It also has a button for Amazon's voice search function, which I'll get to in a minute. Amazon's goal with the Fire TV is to address three main frustrations it's seen from customers of the other media streamers – speed, search, and accessibility. It's packed the Fire TV with a quad-core processor and lots of RAM, so it reacts quickly when you navigate menus and load content. It has a new voice search function that works effortlessly and completely obviates the need to manually enter your searches with the remote. And Amazon promises to offer you access to as many media services as it can. In addition to its own instant video service, there are apps for Hulu Plus, Netflix, Watch ESPN, Crackle, and many others available at launch. A big exception here is HBO Go, which isn't available, but Amazon tells us that it's working with HBO to bring that to the Fire TV soon. If you've ever used a Kindle Fire tablet, the interface of the Fire TV will be very familiar. It's a basic grid of TV shows, apps, and movies that you can watch. It's simple and straightforward enough, but not much different from the interfaces on other media streaming boxes. Amazon preloads your content on the Fire TV before shipping it to you, so once you've connected it to your network, all of your instant video purchases, Amazon Cloud Drive photos, and starting next month, Cloud Player music are instantly available. The Fire TV tries to learn your viewing habits to preload content before you decide to watch it, so you see fewer spinning circles and more movies. The extra hardware horsepower Amazon has packed into the box shows – it's more responsive and loads content quicker than a Roku or Apple TV. And as with Amazon's tablets, if you're fully invested in Amazon's ecosystem, you're going to get the most out of the Fire TV. The Hulu and Netflix apps are very similar to what you get on a Roku or Apple TV, but they are siloed from the rest of the features Amazon is pushing with the Fire TV. You can't use the excellent voice search within Hulu or Netflix, and you still have to tediously key in your logins using the remote. Things you watch on Hulu or Netflix won't show up in your recent feed, and you do a lot of bouncing between services if you're watching video from different sources. Amazon does have some integration with Hulu when you use the universal search function, so you can get right to a show from the main interface. But the biggest differentiator for the Fire TV is its games offering. You can get an optional controller for $39.99 or use the included remote to play a variety of games, ranging from Arcade Racer Asphalt 8 to an Amazon developed Halo clone to Disney sponsored runners. For the most part the games look nice and run well. Video times can be a little long, but I didn't see any dropped frames or stuttering while playing the game. The controller is a pretty generic clone of an Xbox controller with dual control sticks, rear triggers, and a few mushy buttons, but for the most part it gets the job done. Most of the games appear to be ports from existing Android smartphone or tablet titles, but with Amazon developing its own with its own studio of games, there's a good chance we'll see many more titles specifically made for the Fire TV in the future. It's not something that can compete with the Xbox One or PlayStation 4, but for the casual gamer it's a nice little addition to what is already a capable media streaming box, and it's probably going to eat the Ouya and other Android powered gaming systems for lunch. There are some interesting things that are missing from the Fire TV. I can't use it to actually shop Amazon for products, and the vaunted Mayday support service from the Kindle Fire tablets is nowhere to be found. There's a good chance that both of these features will be added at some point in the future, but for now the Fire TV is very much a media streaming box, and it's a first edition one at that. The Fire TV is probably the best media streamer you can get right now, at $99 it's the same price as the Apple TV and only a little more than a Roku 3, but it's faster, offers more and has games to boot. But if you're looking for it to be a replacement for your cable TV service, it's really no different from the current options already on the market. Amazon isn't upending the television industry with this one, it's just giving you more ways to give it money.
 The fight for your living room is heating up.
 Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sony, and small players like Roku all want to take over your
 television and sell you movies and TV shows.
 The new Amazon Fire TV is a set-top box that plugs into your TV and connects to your home's
 Wi-Fi or Ethernet network.
 It's not much different in appearance from an Apple TV or Roku 3, though it's a little
 thinner and a little larger than either of those.
 But the hardware design matters little.
 This thing is designed to sit on your home entertainment center and get out of the way.
 You control the Fire TV with its included Bluetooth remote.
 It's pretty similar to both Apple and Roku's remotes and offers basic controls for navigating
 the interface and playing your media.
 It also has a button for Amazon's voice search function, which I'll get to in a minute.
 Amazon's goal with the Fire TV is to address three main frustrations it's seen from customers
 of the other media streamers – speed, search, and accessibility.
 It's packed the Fire TV with a quad-core processor and lots of RAM, so it reacts quickly
 when you navigate menus and load content.
 It has a new voice search function that works effortlessly and completely obviates the need
 to manually enter your searches with the remote.
 And Amazon promises to offer you access to as many media services as it can.
 In addition to its own instant video service, there are apps for Hulu Plus, Netflix, Watch
 ESPN, Crackle, and many others available at launch.
 A big exception here is HBO Go, which isn't available, but Amazon tells us that it's
 working with HBO to bring that to the Fire TV soon.
 If you've ever used a Kindle Fire tablet, the interface of the Fire TV will be very
 familiar.
 It's a basic grid of TV shows, apps, and movies that you can watch.
 It's simple and straightforward enough, but not much different from the interfaces
 on other media streaming boxes.
 Amazon preloads your content on the Fire TV before shipping it to you, so once you've
 connected it to your network, all of your instant video purchases, Amazon Cloud Drive
 photos, and starting next month, Cloud Player music are instantly available.
 The Fire TV tries to learn your viewing habits to preload content before you decide to watch
 it, so you see fewer spinning circles and more movies.
 The extra hardware horsepower Amazon has packed into the box shows – it's more responsive
 and loads content quicker than a Roku or Apple TV.
 And as with Amazon's tablets, if you're fully invested in Amazon's ecosystem, you're
 going to get the most out of the Fire TV.
 The Hulu and Netflix apps are very similar to what you get on a Roku or Apple TV, but
 they are siloed from the rest of the features Amazon is pushing with the Fire TV.
 You can't use the excellent voice search within Hulu or Netflix, and you still have
 to tediously key in your logins using the remote.
 Things you watch on Hulu or Netflix won't show up in your recent feed, and you do a
 lot of bouncing between services if you're watching video from different sources.
 Amazon does have some integration with Hulu when you use the universal search function,
 so you can get right to a show from the main interface.
 But the biggest differentiator for the Fire TV is its games offering.
 You can get an optional controller for $39.99 or use the included remote to play a variety
 of games, ranging from Arcade Racer Asphalt 8 to an Amazon developed Halo clone to Disney
 sponsored runners.
 For the most part the games look nice and run well.
 Video times can be a little long, but I didn't see any dropped frames or stuttering while
 playing the game.
 The controller is a pretty generic clone of an Xbox controller with dual control sticks,
 rear triggers, and a few mushy buttons, but for the most part it gets the job done.
 Most of the games appear to be ports from existing Android smartphone or tablet titles,
 but with Amazon developing its own with its own studio of games, there's a good chance
 we'll see many more titles specifically made for the Fire TV in the future.
 It's not something that can compete with the Xbox One or PlayStation 4, but for the
 casual gamer it's a nice little addition to what is already a capable media streaming
 box, and it's probably going to eat the Ouya and other Android powered gaming systems for
 lunch.
 There are some interesting things that are missing from the Fire TV.
 I can't use it to actually shop Amazon for products, and the vaunted Mayday support service
 from the Kindle Fire tablets is nowhere to be found.
 There's a good chance that both of these features will be added at some point in the
 future, but for now the Fire TV is very much a media streaming box, and it's a first
 edition one at that.
 The Fire TV is probably the best media streamer you can get right now, at $99 it's the
 same price as the Apple TV and only a little more than a Roku 3, but it's faster, offers
 more and has games to boot.
 But if you're looking for it to be a replacement for your cable TV service, it's really no
 different from the current options already on the market.
 Amazon isn't upending the television industry with this one, it's just giving you more
 ways to give it money.