The remotes from both Apple TV and Fire TV are the gateways to the boxes' personal assistants.
But the Apple TV's remote is more advanced — it has a glass touchpad that allows you to scroll not only up and down, but also side to side, allowing you to quickly go to a movie or TV show or skip ahead in a program.
It also has an accelerometer and gyroscope, so it can be used as a gamepad.
I haven't been able to use either of the remotes — neither device is for sale yet — but Apple's has received some early praise. Tech Insider's Steve Kovach called it "intuitive and easy to use," while Ben Thompson, who writes the tech newsletter Stratechery and also used it briefly at the Apple event earlier this month, wrote that it "worked well" and swiping was "quite accurate."
Neither remote, however, comes with a headphone jack that allows you to watch without disturbing other people. The Roku 3 comes with this, and it's a great feature.
(Amazon's game controller, which comes as part of the $139 Fire TV Gaming Edition package, has a headphone jack. But this package doesn't come with the remote with voice support.)