Oh how badly Amazon wants to be in the digital media device market. So badly, the e-commerce giant went up against Apple TV earlier this year with its set-top box, Fire TV, which, at first, sounded pretty darn on point. Later on, not many folks were in love with Fire TV, for various reasons. PC World even describes the thing as overkill, saying Amazon should have just released the stick in the first place, considering it does pretty much the same thing for less than half the price. In fact, the $39 Amazon Fire TV Stick has the same interface, content and apps, and connection to Amazon Prime accounts as the $99 TV box does. Don't jump off the couch just yet, there's discussion to be had about this stick, which is hoped to stand out against other dongles out there. But, does it?

Maybe the first question to ask is, how does it stand up to its first-gen device? If you're wondering whether Amazon polished up on some of the kinks its set-top box displayed, it did. There was a problem with the Amazon software, in particular, the onscreen keyboard. According to Engadget, the unpopular A-Z, carousel-style keyboard is now gone, and non-voice searches far less painful than before. This time around, the lack of microphone on the remote control means no voice commands, but an add-on option is currently available via Android app.

As far as the interface, although it does not seem to be as responsive and quick when loading apps and videos, is “still quite good” (Geek Wire). The content and apps are the same as Fire TV, as well as the connection to Netflix and the user's Amazon Prime account. Finally, the stick has no Ethernet port for connectivity options, and also requires an external power source via USB connection (Geek Wire).

Let's compare the competitors. As imagined, it's just like the Chromecast, similar in size, and super inexpensive. Like all other Amazon devices, because its blood is Amazon, it caters “as a conduit to the company's own digital media offerings”, similar to the the way Apple TV focuses on its own services (Phys). That doesn't mean plenty of third-party apps aren't a click away, like Hulu, Showtime, and YouTube. Unfortunately, Amazon's level of content falls short of both the Roku and Chromecast, especially in the manner that Roku lets you access tons of internet channels, as well as your Google Play and iTunes items,

To wrap up, Amazon's Fire TV Stick does everything you would hope it to do, just not too much more. It also focuses primarily on delivering content, not so much as a working game console (although you can casually game), as its big brother Fire TV did. If you're an invested Amazon and Amazon Prime fan, what better way to manage that ecosystem than using a media streamer? If you're not, maybe pay just ten bucks more for the endless supply of content the Roku offers.