Amazon today announced the new Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, a powerful streaming media stick available for just $40. The upgraded device is up to 30 percent faster than the original version, it offers access to over 300,000 movies and TV episodes, and includes the Alexa Voice Remote. It is available for pre-order starting today from www.amazon.com/fire-tv-stick and will begin shipping to U.S. customers on October 20.

Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote responds and lets you search across more than 90 apps and channels. Just say "find suspense thrillers" or "launch Hulu" and Alexa will respond. Fire TV will also show you the best viewing options – watch, stream, rent, or buy – to help you choose apps and channels based on convenience and value. For Amazon Video content, you can also control playback with just your voice; just ask Alexa to "go back 30 seconds" or "jump ahead 2 minutes."

Users can also ask Alexa to check local movie times, create shopping lists, play music, get the news and weather, order a pizza or a ride, and much more.

The Fire TV Stick is powered by a quad-core processor, offers 802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi connectivity and Advanced Streaming and Prediction (ASAP) for Amazon Video. It also offers support for High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC), giving users more 1080p HD streams from their existing internet connection.

Coming later this year, a free software update for Fire TV will offer video trailers and content screenshots without users needing to open and close multiple apps. Accessibility improvements will also be included, allowing customers to use Fire TV and any compatible apps with the VoiceView screen reader.