Amazon launches the Fire TV Stick, a $39 Chromecast rival

Amazon has today announced new hardware to help it deliver on its streaming media ambitions – the Fire TV Stick, which will go on sale from November 19 in the US.

The device allows users to stream content from a range of services and will cost $39. It’s available to pre-order now, and for the next two days will cost Prime members just $19.

Amazon boasts that the hardware is considerably more powerful than that of Google’s competing Chromecast dongle; the Fire TV stick includes a dual-core processor, more memory and MIMO (dual antenna) Wi-Fi. The stick also includes a remote control, which Chromecast does not. Naturally, there’s a mobile app for controlling it too, but only for Android devices at the moment.

➤ Fire TV Stick [Amazon]