One of the worst kept secrets among tech circles was Amazon's plan to enter into the set top box game with its very own Android-based device. Well, the once book seller now eCommerce giant has made it all official with the recent announcement of its new device called the Fire TV. Of course, while the fact it was coming was a surprise to no one, Amazon did have some tricks up its sleeve for its big reveal.

One of the first surprises for Amazon's box is just how powerful it is. It boasts a quad core processor, 2GB of RAM, and a dedicated GPU for playing games. The games portion of the box was heavily rumored leading up to the event, and it turns out they were spot on, as the rumored controller, which retails for $40 on top of the $99 box itself, is the exact one Amazon ended up revealing at the event. It looks like a decent enough controller, but we will have to wait to get out hands on it to really get a feel for it. Amazon also promises that many games can be played using the media player remote that comes packaged in the box.

Another cool feature announced is the ability to search using your voice, a trend many companies seem to be jumping on with their living room technology. Instead of featuring a camera across the room, like Microsoft's Xbox One, Amazon's microphone is right in the remote control, which means, according to Amazon's Peter Larsen, "There's no shouting across the room at your TV, which is irritating."

Amazon Fire TV

Of course, Amazon's Fire TV will include staples like its own streaming service, YouTube, Crackle, Netflix, and plenty of others. It also features to ability the broadcast the screen of supported devices, much like Airplay on an Apple TV, which will be a welcomed feature.

Probably the biggest suprise from Amazon's announcement was the release date, which was revealed to be the very same day. So that means that if you are interested, you can jump over to Amazon and order the Fire TV and its game controller right now.

Source: Amazon