Catch our Amazon video event liveblog right here!
Today’s the day when Amazon unveils…something to do with video (or so we’re told). Let’s not beat around the bush here: this is almost certainly Amazon’s long-rumored video streaming device, and may very well also be the game streaming device we’ve been hearing about (we’re guessing it’s one device that does both). Oh, and probably that Bluetooth game controller too, right? There’s gotta be some reason Amazon bought the studio that made the new Killer Instinct!
Regardless, the particulars are missing. What kind of streaming options will there be? How about onboard processing? A set-top box or a dongle (a la Chromecast)? How does this incorporate the coming army of Jeff Bezos-controlled domestic drones? Should we bring our bugout bags to the event?
April 2, 2014 11:00:00 AM EDT
Hey folks! We’re seated in Amazon’s liveblog in extremely comfy, living room-style seating. The event’s outfitted with movie theater couture. WHAT COULD IT BE?
I’m joined today by a denim-clad Terrence O’Brien on text and a sleepy Edgar Alvarez on photos. We’ll also be breaking out the important news as it breaks.
Beyond the decorations, we’ve spotted the head of Telltale Games in the crowd. Looks like there’ll be some form of gaming announcement here!
We’re told that Amazon head Jeff Bezos won’t be on-hand, which is surprising given the seriousness of this event.
On the stage there’s a faux living room setup, and in the home theater there are two green trays covered in black felt. We’re betting that’s where today’s big announcement is hiding.
The usual gaggle of tech press are here, but a surprising number of mainstream media are also here. CNN’s Brian Stelter is sitting in the back looking dapper, and a well-dressed New York Times reporter is sitting to our left.
A nearby TV is running clips from movie after movie. Katniss Everdeen is shooting arrows and Lennie Kravitz is nodding, knowingly.
Oh, and there’s a bowl of candy next to us. Because movie theaters. You’ll excuse us if we don’t partake, as it’s 11AM.
Ellie Goulding’s “Burn” is blaring over the speakers, we are drinking coffee and looking at people who are looking at their phones. We’d love to give you a more exciting update, but that’s all we’ve got for now. This thing should kick off any minute now!
(It’s supposed to start at 11AM EDT, so, uh, literally any minute now.)
Okay fine, we’re eating candy. FINE AMAZON. You’ve won.
The lights are dimming, the show is about to begin. Let’s go!
A brief trailer for Amazon’s Instant Video is playing, showcasing BBC neo-classics and a variety of other media.
Did you know they’ve got “Great Kids Content” as well as shows for the rest of us? Now you do!
Peter Larsen from Amazon is up first, and he’s starting with Amazon Digital Video.
Between 2006 and 2010, the service only grew incrementally. In 2011, however, he says it blew up.
“It’s because we started investing in that great content you just saw.” 350 percent growth, he says!
Peter’s talking about the competition now. Hulu and Netflix are both growing, he says. “It’s clear that customers love this content.
The PS4, Xbox One, Roku 3, Chromecast, and Apple TV are all cited as devices customers love, and where they’re streaming. Sounds like he’s setting up for a reveal of Amazon’s box.
Pretty sure that’s a game controller I can see peeking through the side of a tray on stage. Get excited folks!
First things first, he’s got a demo of Roku’s search function. He…doesn’t love it.
He’s citing customer reviews of text input on streaming devices. One compares it to entering high scores on an old Nintendo. We don’t disagree!
“The second thing we hear from customers all the time is performance. Laggy performance.”
He’s saying that nothing takes you (and your loved ones) out of the experience more than load times. We don’t quite agree there, but lag does suck.
Bizarrely, it sounds like he’s talking about internet connectivity issues and not horsepower issues.
“The third thing we hear from customers is this idea of a closed ecosystem.”
It makes Pete super mad that he can’t watch Amazon Prime Instant Video on his Apple TV. He’s also citing customer complaints about Samsung’s similarly closed ecosystem.
And now he’s calling out Microsoft, pointing out that Xbox Live Gold costs $60/year to even use services like Netflix (which costs another subscription fee on top of that).
So, to review: search, performance, and closed ecosystems are all issues Amazon wants to solve.
How to solve that? “Invent and Simplify,” he says.
He’s citing solutions Amazon’s made in the past, from Kindle’s battery life to spearheading the ability to use electronics on airplanes.
“When we looked at the living room, we took that same approach. How do we make the complexity disappear?”
Pete’s got a device in his hand — “introducing Amazon Fire TV”
It’s a small black box. “Listen, this thing’s tiny, it’s incredibly powerful, and it’s unbelievably simple.”
A screen behind Pete shows off the OS operating on Fire TV. It looks a lot like Spotify! “One other thing: good news, you’re all taking one home today!”
Hey alright!
First things first, Pete’s talking performance. He says Amazon noticed three bottlenecks. “Fire TV has a quad-core processor. It’s best in class for a product of this type.”
“It also has a dedicated GPU, the kind usually found in smartphones.”
“The second performance bottleneck we solved was RAM. Fire TV has 2GB of RAM. That’s 2 to 4 times more than these other products on the market right now.”
Pete says that the extra RAM makes it operate smooth and quickly. It boots up quickly and seamlessly, he claims.
The device also has dual-band WiFi, so that applications and content download quickly and consistently.
Fire TV has “3x” more power than the competition, Pete says.
It’s shorter than a dime! Who are these people measuring things with coins?
There’s a pretty little remote control for the device as well, and we see a microphone button on there. And hey, a microphone hole! It looks like Fire TV is voice-controlled as well as remote-controlled.
It’s about the height of a piece of popped corn, according to the slide on stage.
Search, Home, Movies, TV, Watchlist, Video Library, Games, Apps, Photos, Settings are all in the main screen.
Pete’s drilling into each now. When you push in to any category, a horizontal list of tiles enables playing the content, adding to watchlist, or pushing to other devices (“More Ways to Watch”).
Pete’s showing a demo of “ASAP” — a function of Fire TV that stars content playing immediately. When we say immediately, we mean IMMEDIATELY. Like, the second he pushed the button. It made Terrence say, “Jesus!”
Fire TV is based on Android and HTML, so it’s apparently super easy to port apps over. A huge selection of the app world’s greatest hits were shown as coming to the device.
“We’re starting off with Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video of course, and we’re rolling in other partners over time.”
Pete also says that Amazon Studios will bolster Fire TV’s content lineup. And now he’s showing us a trailer. Oh god, it’s Alpha House!
The video cites 10 original shows coming to Amazon Video this spring, featuring everyone from Jeffrey Tambor to John Goodman.
All 10 shows are coming “exclusively” to Amazon Prime Instant Video. Pete’s also citing Chris Carter’s “The After” and “Mozart in the Jungle,” as well as Tambor’s “Transparent.”
It looks like HBO Go, SHO Anytime, Pandora, RedBullTV and a whole mess of others are headed to Fire TV. No idea of when, sadly.
Voice search is up next. Pete’s searching for John Malkovich using the remote control’s mic. Malkovich’s films are listed! Burn After Reading!
“This is voice search that actually works,” Pete says. BOLD WORDS, Pete. We’ll let you know how reliable it is just as soon as we get our hands on it.
Searching for “20 Feet From Stardom” also smartly brings up other Oscar nominated documentaries.
Now Pete’s searching by genre. He says, “Princess movies” and encounters a voice error. One more attempt and it goes through. There are princess movies on screen! “So that’s voice search that actually works,” Pete says.
Pete’s now taking a picture of the audience, and he’s using Amazon’s Cloud Drive to push it to his Fire TV.
Scrolling down to the photo in his Photos section, there we are, looking harried.
We’re now being shown a mosaic of photos that Pete’s taken running as a screen saver when he’s left the Fire TV idle for a bit.
Pete’s detailing “X-ray” — a second-screen solution on Fire TV that provides rich content for whatever you’re watching.
It works somewhat like SmartGlass on Xbox 360/Xbox One, picking up what he’s watching and providing info contextually based on not just the show in general, but the scene itself. The info is pulled from IMDB, he says.
And now we’re talking features that are coming next month. First up, music.
“We’ve got music apps: Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn.”
When Pete plays Pharrell’s “Happy,” lyrics pop up on the screen as well. Free karaoke!
Next up is “FreeTime.” The service is already available on tablets — it’s a kids version of the Fire TV’s OS. Think of it as a safe environment for your children, powered by parents/caretakers.
FreeTime not only walls off kids from the dangerous stuff, but it also allows for more general searching. One such search? Dinosaurs. You’ll forgive us, but we’d like to search for dinosaurs too. Thank you very much.
The OS is adorably kiddie, as you’ll see in the pictures above.
“FreeTime Unlimited” is another option, which enables content from Sesame Street, PBS Kids and Nickelodeon. In so many words, it’s a cultivated selection of content that enables kids to explore without bottlenecks of asking parents for permission to buy.
Pete says Fire TV also has a bonus: gaming.
He’s citing the price of game consoles being too high.
(Which, to us, means that Fire TV is less than $300 at very least. No official word on price yet.)
Mike Frazzini from Amazon Games is up next.
He’s citing the variety of game developers signed up. Big names like Ubisoft and Take-Two are noted. He says that, by next month, thousands of games will be available to play.
Mike’s saying that you can play games a variety of ways. You can use the remote control, you can use a custom app that Amazon’s releasing next month, or you could use the Fire Game Controller.
“This controller is comfortable, it’s familiar.”
(Yes, this is the game controller that leaked last month.)
The controller costs $40 and comes with some Amazon Coins to get you started.
The first game being shown is…Minecraft!
That was not what we were expecting!
This is a Fire TV-specific version of Minecraft — it’s not clear how it stacks up against the mobile, PC, and console versions of Minecraft.
Next up, a Monsters Inc.-themed always-runner. “This game is fun and accessible and can be played by customers of all ages.”
Gameloft’s Asphalt 8 is being shown next. For a mobile game, it looks very impressive. Like, PSP impressive. Maybe a little better than that.
Now we’re talking price for games. Mike says the average game costs just under $2 at $1.85.
Just like video content, Amazon’s also making games for Fire TV. The first being shown is Sev Zero. Is this from Double Helix? We’re not so sure just yet.
Sev Zero is a third-person shooter in the vein of Gears of War, but ya know, a lot less visually impressive. The fidelity is somewhere between mobile phone and portable game console.
Mike says none of these games would be possible without the horsepower inside of Fire TV.
“At Amazon Game Studios, Sev Zero’s our first step at building games from the ground up.”
Mike’s giving a sneak peak at Amazon’s internal game developments now.
None of the games being shown are products we’ve seen before, so it looks like this whole reel is internal development. If that’s the case, Amazon has a TON of games in the works. More than a dozen. We’ll be sure to ask for more info as soon as the presentation’s over.
The only tease beyond the reel is “Coming Soon.”
Mike’s turning the presentation back to Peter. He’s very excited about a dinosaur with a rocket on its back. And now we’re getting some testimonials from customers that used the device last week.
These people who were sat down in a comfy room by Amazon and asked for their opinions on a device were totally interested in it. Go figure.
One of those testimonials confirms multitasking. Apparently you’re able to keep Pandora/music playing while using other apps. Good!
It looks like we’re getting to the bottom line at this point. What’s the price, Pete?!
He says Amazon did all it could to create a compelling product at the lowest possible price. First, he wants to review what we’ve learned today. Tell us the price, Pete!
Yes, Fire TV has lots of “content.” Yes, it has voice search. Yes, it’s relatively powerful. Yes, there are some neat special functions. WHAT IS THE PRICE, PETE?!
Amazon’s Fire TV costs $99 and it’s available today. Hey, that’s not too shabby!
We’re being shown the first advertisement for Fire TV now, featuring CRAZY Gary Busey.
Hey, let’s talk about that price and release date instead. It’s only a hundred bucks! And it’s available today!
The event’s wrapping right now, and we’ll have a whole mess more information for you just as soon as we’ve got one in our hands. That should be literally any second now.
Thanks very much for joining us here, folks! If you’ve got follow up questions, feel free to get at your livebloggers (@realbengilbert, @terrenceobrien, @abcedgar) or hit up Engadget @Engadget. Hugs and kisses!
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Household, Wireless, Software, HD, Amazon
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