Two days ago, Amazon announced a $99 gaming console and media center named the Fire TV. Among the video game selection at launch was Minecraft PE, with Mojang hosting a booth to try it out. While there wasn't much of a demo at the announcement, Minecraft players have already gotten their hands on the game and revealed some interesting info.
The most interesting bit of information is that the version released with the Fire TV is Minecraft PE 0.8.2, so that confirms that it is not 0.9.0 (yet). MCPE 0.8.2 appears to be exactly like 0.8.1 in every way, with the addition of on-screen controls for the Fire TV's controller and integration/optimization with the Fire TV's hardware. Minecraft PE doesn't seem to have any lag, which shouldn't be a problem with the Fire TV's quad-core 1.7GHz CPU and 2 GB of RAM. That's right, the Fire TV will support infinite worlds in 0.9.0.
As seen from the interface of MCPE on the Fire TV, this is nowhere near Minecraft on the Xbox or PlayStation. The inventory and crafting screens are simply bigger and more stretched-out than on phones and tablets. Perhaps Mojang simply didn't have enough time to port the interface from Minecraft on consoles to the Fire TV, or maybe they want to keep the Pocket Edition experience the same on every device.
It seems possible that MCPE on the Fire TV is one of the reasons MCPE 0.9.0 was pushed back to May 2014. To make Minecraft PE available on the Fire TV's launch day, it seems likely that all other development (including development on 0.9.0) was put on hold until the port was complete. Mojang never gave a full explanation, or any explanation for that matter, on why MCPE 0.9.0 was delayed from March to May. This very well could be the reason why, but was it worth it?
Update: Johan from Mojang has confirmed to us that MCPE for the Amazon Fire TV did not actually delay 0.9.0. He said, "Not at all, actually Amazon did everything themselves and if anything helped us with future pad support :) Truth is, the new stuff in 0.9 is just quite hard to make!"
Source: YouTube