Amazon Fire TV Cube puts Alexa in control of your home entertainment

It was only a matter of time before Amazon properly combined two of its biggest home grown product lines -- Fire TV and Amazon Echo -- and today we get to see what the end result looks like.

Amazon Fire TV Cube is a hands-free 4K Ultra HD streaming media player with Alexa built in, allowing you to control your TV from across the room. You can use your voice to play, pause, and resume content, but that’s not all.

In addition, you can control your compatible TV, sound bar, A/V receiver, and cable or satellite box, turn your TV on and off, change the volume, switch to different inputs, check the weather, listen to the news and more -- all just using your voice. Although there's a remote control if you prefer that option.

Amazon explains that, "Even with the TV off, simply say 'Alexa, play Billions on SHOWTIME' and Fire TV Cube powers on your TV and starts playback right where you left off." Pretty cool. The cube-shaped device uses far-field voice recognition with eight microphones so it can hear you from quite some distance.

Announcing the new device, Marc Whitten, Vice President of Fire TV says "We believe voice makes it easier for customers to control their entertainment systems and watch the TV and movies they care about. And, it’s just the beginning. Amazon Fire TV Cube will only get better over time with the Alexa service always getting smarter."

Amazon Fire TV Cube is available for pre-order starting today for $119.99. It comes with an IR extender cable and Ethernet adapter, and will start shipping on June 21. As an introductory offer, Prime members can pre-order Fire TV Cube on June 7 and 8 for a special price of $89.99, saving $30.