Amazon to Ship Video-Streaming Device in April

Amazon.com Inc. will begin shipping its long-awaited video-streaming device in early April, through its website as well as retailers including Best Buy Co. and Staples Inc., said people familiar with the company's plans.

The Amazon device will carry a variety of apps available on Roku Inc. and Apple Inc. set-top boxes and run on a version of Google Inc.'s Android software, like Amazon's tablet computers, these people said. Roku's most popular apps include video services Netflix and Hulu Plus and music service Pandora, as well as Amazon's own video-streaming service.

Pricing remains unclear, though the people familiar with the company's plans said the device likely would come with incentives available to members of Amazon's Prime streaming video and shipping program. Last week Amazon said it is increasing the price of Prime by $20 to $99 annually, in part because of the rising cost of acquiring video.

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In recent weeks, Amazon has held talks with record companies and music publishers in hopes of creating an on-demand music-streaming service for Prime customers, people familiar with the matter have said.

Amazon has distributed a pre-production version of its streaming device to select app developers, and has indicated it will carry the Fire name Amazon uses for Kindle tablet computers, these people said.

A TechCrunch report Monday said the device will resemble Chromecast's dongle, which plugs into a television and looks like a thumb drive.

The people familiar with Amazon's plans warned that the company may alter the rollout because of financial, performance or other concerns.

The device has been in development since at least April of last year. Amazon plans to ship it with a simple remote control, the people familiar with the plans said, though reports this month suggest Amazon may sell a more advanced controller separately.

Amazon last year demonstrated how its latest tablet computer can connect with television sets to work like a remote control.

FULL ARTICLE - http://online.wsj.com/news/article_e...MDEwNzExNDcyWj

Amazon is making a box for your living room, and this is what its game controller looks like

Images of an Amazon-branded game controller have leaked, all-but confirming the existence of an Amazon set-top box for your TV. The images were first posted by media blog Zatz Not Funny, and come from a Brazilian regulatory agency similar to the FCC. They depict a traditional-looking game controller with media control buttons at its bottom. It actually looks remarkably similar to the controller for OnLive, but with Xbox-style offset analogue sticks. The controller also features three central buttons that look like Android's back, home, and menu keys, and a button beneath that bears the logo for GameCircle, Amazon's service for cloud saves, leaderboards, and achievements.

FULL ARTICLE - http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/14/55...ler-photo-leak

Amazon’s Set Top Box Will Be A Dongle Like Chromecast, Could Feature OnLive-Style Streaming

Amazon is readying a game console/set top box of its own, and we’ve learned from multiple sources familiar with the device that the Lab126-produced gadget will have a form factor similar to the Chromecast, or in other words it’ll be a stick or dongle as opposed to something like the Apple TV. In addition, one source claims it should have support for streaming full PC game titles, and as such might be able to compete with consoles including the Xbox and PlayStation, instead of just Android-powered living room game devices.

The stick form factor is not a surprise, given that Roku has just launched its own device using the same design, and the Chromecast has done so well in terms of attracting buyers. But the interesting component could be the way the gadget approaches gaming. Streamed PC titles is in keeping with some of what we’ve heard before in whispers around Amazon’s efforts, and makes sense given that the company sells digital download titles for PC and Mac direct from its ecommerce website.

These streaming efforts will be more akin to the remote game service offered by OnLive, than to the local streaming that Nvidia offers through its Shield Android gaming console and Nvidia-powered gaming PCs. The titles, which are said to be top-tier games, will be streamed from Amazon’s services at 30fps (which is comparable to most online video) according to our source.

OnLive was acquired by Lauder Partners, in a deal that was designed to relieve its financial troubles. The company had racked up considerable debt during the course of its operations, which were cost-intensive in part because of the need for it to establish high-capacity servers across the country to provide its service. Amazon has a big head start: It already manages huge server farms to power its digital content and cloud service offerings.

Offering streaming gaming would provide a huge competitive advantage over its rivals in the set top box space, both large and small, and OnLive’s failure wasn’t due to a lack of demand, but due to the high cost of operation and lack of ability to scale. Plus, if added in as an Amazon Prime member benefit, the e-commerce company could have yet another incentive to get users on board with its premium product. Plus, it could plug into the recently leaked Amazon gaming controller, despite the fact that the device is said to be sold independently of any set top box and compatible with Kindle Fire tablets, too.

FULL ARTICLE - http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/17/ama...ame-streaming/

Amazon Launching Video Box Next Week

Amazon’s entry into the set-top box world, which has been delayed for months, is coming next week, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.

The e-commerce giant has invited reporters to gather for an “update on our video business” in New York next Wednesday, April 2.

The popcorn and couch in the image give you a pretty good idea of what to expect, as does our previous reporting, which explained that Amazon has been preparing a Web-to-TV gadget for many months.

FULL ARTICLE - http://recode.net/2014/03/27/amazon-...box-next-week/