Amazon Fire TV

Rumored features include having Amazon Alexa built in. That's hardly a stretch, given that unlike the previous-generation Fire TV box this one's definitely meant to be seen out in the open — why design it like a cube otherwise? That means you should be able to bark orders at it just like you would an Amazon Echo, without needing to use the remote control for voice commands. That'll be very cool.

For example, when we reviewed the Fire TV Stick, if you search for a show that’s only available through the BBC iPlayer, Amazon’s software will have absolutely nothing to show you. It’s not even intelligent enough to know which streaming service the show is available on.  Instead you’ll have to navigate to the app in question (which can be done using voice search), open it, and manually find the program via the app’s own interface – and here you won’t be able to use Alexa to search, so you’ll have to navigate an on-screen keyboard using your remote. 

But what’s changed is the addition of a voice control button. You hold it down to summon Alexa: in theory that makes up for the simplicity of the remote by allowing you to search for the exact show that you want without having to type using an on-screen keyboard.

Unfortunately the one spec you’re likely to care the most about, resolution, has seen no change between the previous generation of the Fire TV Stick and this one. It’s still a 10, non-HDR streaming stick, despite Google’s

For a lot of folks out there, this is going to be plenty to get your cord-cutting life started. Here's everything you need to know about Amazon Fire TV, in a nutshell.

But we don't actually recommend the stick. Why? A number of reasons. Mostly because if this is the sort of thing you're going to be using a