Entertaining prospect: Amazon Fire TV Stick

Game on

I did a voice search by name with rather surprising results — who knew that Woody Allen’s work extended into Law & Order, Star Trek and the movie Last Night? Only one of the first four listed was correct. With Woody Allen being such a prolific filmmaker, it seems like the Fire TV Stick worked extra hard to get it so wrong.

Did Woody Allen's Sleeper appear on Star Trek too?

Rather more successful than name searching was the new feature called X-Ray which required a recent firmware update to use. Simply press the top of the remote control click wheel and characters in a scene are identified or you can view the movie’s cast and other trivia sourced from IMDB.

Like Shazam but for movies, X-Ray allows you to find out who's who in a scene, if the title is supported

I tried it on Under the Skin which seems to source images directly from the film for lesser known cast members. One entry appears to show Kevin McAlinden played the part of a Ford Transit steering wheel – obviously a gripping role and a turning point in his career.

Choose 'View All X-Ray' and more options become available to aid fading grey cells and settle film buff squabbles

Personally, I was more interested in browsing, and on Recently Added found a quirky, albeit somewhat claustrophobic sitcom, Web Therapy which has, apparently, been running for years across the pond. Who’d have known? Certainly nobody in the office when I checked just now.

Viewing resumed on the iOS Amazon Instant Video app and with subtitles too – shame it's all in caps though

Apps and games are also available, so I gave Lego Star Wars: The New Yoda Chronicles a try. Manoeuvring from the remote control took a bit of getting used to but for a free game, it should keep folk both big and small entertained.

Lego Star Wars, if you think you're hard enough

Less impressive was the Simply Yoga Free app, not so much for its design but for its instruction. As someone who’s done more than his fair share of joint rolling and leg pulling, I know that the Sun Salutations is not performed with bent knees in certain positions – this app made it look like it was being demonstrated for geriatrics.

Not appy: Downward dog with bent knees? What's the world coming to?

If you’re already married to the Amazon ecosystem, then viewing can move back and forth between Fire tablet or phone and the Fire Stick. Amazon resists calling it casting, describing it as simply using a second screen.

When testing with a Fire HDX 8.9, this worked fine – the tablet managing a much better performance in the dodgy Wi-Fi room tests – although the handover could take around 15 seconds at times, which didn’t always inspire confidence.