Amazon to Launch Dongle in April, Per Reports

Amazon’s long-awaited video streaming device will hit stores next month, according to sources quoted in The Wall Street Journal. The streaming device, which has been rumored for years, will repo...
Amazon to Launch Dongle in April, Per Reports
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Amazon’s long-awaited video streaming device will hit stores next month, according to sources quoted in The Wall Street Journal.

    The streaming device, which has been rumored for years, will reportedly hit Amazon.com as well as a handful of brick-and-mortar retailers like Best Buy and Staples in April. Amazon was originally planning on launching said device before the big 2013 holiday push, but delayed the device for unknown reasons.

    Apparently, when it does finally arrive, it’s going to resemble a dongle–meaning that it’ll look similar to Google’s Chromecast or Roku’s Stick device instead of an Apple TV or Roku set-top box.

    When it launches, it should sport a variety of third party apps like Netflix and Hulu–as well as Amazon’s own Prime Instant Video.

    We’ve always heard that Amazon’s video streaming device would feature a gaming component. But according to a report from TechCrunch, the dongle will “have support for streaming full PC game titles,” which would most definitely make it a more serious competitor in the gaming platform field–more so than if the device simply focused on Android-based titles.

    Last week, the Brazilian equivalent of the FCC posted images of what is supposedly the game controller for the new Amazon streaming device. Resembling an Xbox 360 controller, it would most surely be an add-on as a more traditional remote would probably ship alongside the dongle.

    The last piece of the proverbial puzzle is price. What’s this thing gonna cost you? In order to compete with the Chromecast ($35) and Roku Stick ($50), Amazon’s new dongle would have to be in that ballpark. The Wall Street Journal says that the device “likely would come with incentives available to members of Amazon Prime,” which as you probably heard, just increased in price to $99 a year.

    Image via Thinkstock

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