At a press event in New York Wednesday, Amazon unveiled a new device that allows users to stream content to a TV screen. The flat, black Fire TV has a quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and a dedicated GPU, hardware that will help address some of the usual concerns about streaming devices, according to Amazon, and support a push into gaming.

The device comes with a small remote, and its interface puts Amazon content front and center. Customers can access their watch list and scroll through organized sections of movies and TV shows. A separate section for apps is listed in the home interface, where users can access content from partners.

Amazon places a lot of emphasis on the ability of its box to start streams instantly, without a loading or buffering screen. This feature, called "ASAP," predicts the content that a user is likely to watch (for instance, the next episode in a series) and pre-loads it on the device. Conceptually, ASAP bears some similarity to the Kindle Fire's Silk browser, which was meant to predictively load webpages to streamline the experience.

The OS is based on Android and HTML, but Amazon did not specify further how it is related to the OS of its other devices. The Kindle Fire is also based on a fork of Android, but it's unclear if the Fire TV uses its own fork or is based on the Kindle Fire's software.

Instead of hunt-and-peck typing with the remote, users can use a voice search feature to locate content based on attributes like starring actors or whether the content is available to rent or buy.

The Fire TV will include access to Amazon's X-ray service, which allows users to look up information about a video from within the video itself (an actor's name, for instance, or shooting location). The device also includes access to Amazon's music service as well as the ability to display photos.

Amazon revealed that it will support a number of games on the device, and the company unveiled a new gaming controller that will be available as a separate accessory for $39.99. Users will be able to use the remote or an iPad app to control games.

To accompany the product's announcement, Amazon announced a new game from Amazon Game Studios, Sev Zero, a third-person sci-fi shooter with tower defense elements. Players can also join games as air support from a Kindle Fire tablet.

Like the Kindle Fire, the Fire TV includes the child-oriented FreeTime, which segments kids' content into a specific section of the interface that the user can't exit without the parent's password. Parents can also set a time limit for interaction with the FreeTime section. Amazon is introducing a new subscription, FreeTime Unlimited, which gives full access to all FreeTime content.

Partners for the new Fire TV at launch include Hulu Plus, Netflix, Vimeo, Vudu, Flixster, NBA, and YouTube. According to Amazon, more services will be available on the device in the coming months.

The Fire TV is a step into the space largely dominated by companies like Roku, Apple, and Google. During its presentation, Amazon said that it has been paying close attention to the complaints of customers who have been using the other companies' devices through Amazon—namely that search is difficult, performance is laggy, and the ecosystems are closed—in order to build its own streaming device.

The Fire TV will be priced at $99 and will begin shipping today.