Amazon unveils streaming and gaming set top box, Fire TV

Amazon has unveiled its play for your front room at a press conference today with a set top box that plugs into your TV and runs an open Android OS, called Fire TV.

The device is a little black box, which looks similar to Apple TV, and allows users to stream more than 200,000 TV shows and films directly to their TVs, from Amazon’s Instant Video library as well as from other streaming services and apps, like Netflix and Hulu.

Amazon has also forged new partnerships with gaming companies like Sega, EA and Disney and promises fans of Minecraft it’ll be coming to Fire TV shortly, and there’s a pretty awesome karaoke function too that serves lyrics up onto your screen.

Right now the new device looks more than capable of taking on both the Apple TV and the Google Chromecast in the fight for our TV watching habits of the future.

The set top box has dual Wi-Fi for a faster connection, serves up high definition images and has a remote for voice-activated search features.

The Fire TV will cost £59 and is available now in the US. We’ve got no official details about when Fire TV will be coming to the UK, but we’ll update this post when we do.