

Insider's details about the Amazon Phone - Helvodka

Here&#x27;s all I know about the Amazon Phone.<p>1- There are 2 versions, a cheap one that&#x27;s being released by the end of the year with a basic software similar to the Kindle Fire software. The other version will be more expensive and feature a 3D UI but won&#x27;t be released until at least next year. The screen itself is not 3D, but the front of the phone has 4 cameras placed on each corner of the phone, this is to track the user&#x27;s eyes&#x2F;head and move the UI to give the impression of 3D. Similar to what iOS 7 is achieving simply by using the phone&#x27;s accelerometer. The advantage being that it&#x27;s not based on how the phone moves, but how the head moves.<p>2- They wanted to have it launched already but had difficulties with both software and hardware, and then lots of key players left the company - a common problem at Amazon is retention, having the lowest record of any tech company.<p>3- As a result, several engineers from other products have moved to the phone team, making other products severely short staffed.<p>4- They have done testing so the software ignores other faces next to you, this is to prevent the illusion from breaking if there are many people looking at the phone.<p>5- The phone might have image recognition so users can take a picture of any object and search the Amazon.com database for similar products. This is not the barcode scan that&#x27;s available already, but actual object recognition. This might allow them to sell the phone for cheaper since they&#x27;d make money off extra sales.<p>6- Current code-name for the product is &quot;Smith&quot;.
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Chestofdraw
Running four cameras just for a 3d UI? Isn't that going to be a huge battery
drain with little benefit?

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midnitewarrior
That should also give it depth perception for recognizing objects that it
photographs. That appears to support the subsidized revenue model of the
device.

