
Amazon Fire Phone - pdknsk
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EOE0WKQ
======
nostromo
The market positioning here seems very un-Amazon.

"Your margin is my opportunity" is probably my favorite Bezosism. Given that
perspective and Apple's very cushy margins, I expected Amazon not to approach
the market with an expensive phone packed with new features, but to approach
the market from the bottom, with a good phone that is free or nearly free. The
problem, of course, is that Google seems to have that segment wrapped up.

Instead of competing with the iPhone, this seems to more targeted at Android
-- only priced uncompetitively.

The features themselves seem slightly gimmicky. I tend not to want to move my
phone physically as a way to interact with apps. (Doing that figure "8" when
my GPS goes out for some reason is incredibly awkward.) Searching via photos
is awesome, but the only use case it seems well suited for is shopping. The
built-in Genius Bar is cool, but it seems targeted toward smartphone noobs,
which is oddly coupled with features targeted to smartphone pros.

If I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, this will probably be a novelty, like
Windows Phone, for a while to come.

~~~
Consultant32452
This is interesting I think...

iPad: Kindle Fire, Nexus 7

Apple TV: Kindle Fire TV, Chromecast

iTunes: Amazon Prime Streaming TV + now music, Google Play

iPhone: Kindle Fire Phone, Nexus 4

I think they're all playing for the same territory. The big difference seems
to be that Apple really only sells the technology. Google sells the technology
so that they can sell advertising for third party products. Amazon has the
only complete end to end solution where they sell you the products and
advertise for their own "other stuff" they sell. IMHO Amazon is going to be
the big winner in the long run. Whether or not that's good for all of us is
yet to be determined.

~~~
drcode
You make a good point:

    
    
       Apple: Sell at high price, modest tie-in revenue.
       Google: Sell at low price, modest tie-in revenue.
       Amazon: Sell at low price, high tie-in revenue.
    

It does seem like Amazon is bound to win in the long run, based on pure
economics, if this trend continues.

~~~
IBM
Except it isn't being sold at a low price, and doesn't really offer anything
valuable to the customer that differentiates it from the competition. The
implicit deal was always the product is sold at cost so they can encourage
sales on the store, why would anyone pay full price for this?

~~~
drcode
Fair enough, but I suspect the profit margins on this phone are pretty slim,
given the hardware features. I think Bezos figured the high end hardware was
necessary to initially break into the market.

~~~
evanmoran
Agreed. If they initially brand the Fire phone as a high-end device it will
seem more valuable when they ruthlessly cut its price=).

------
Zelphyr
Sounds like this phone does a good job of solving Amazon's problem of getting
customers to buy more from them. I don't see how it makes my life any easier
though.

3D? Ok, that is really cool. 2D hasn't really been a limiting factor for me
though.

One-handed navigation and autoscrolling? Wow, that just sounds terrible. I'm
trying to read and my kid bumps my arm. Now where am I on the page? And how do
I quickly get back to where I was?

Mayday seems nice but then if the phone is that intuitive I can't see needing
it much. Loss leader for them I guess.

Tangle-free premium headset. Finally, a feature I would pay money for.
Seriously. Do they sell these separately? Because I want.

~~~
stevenguichard
Mayday is actually a killer feature on a phone for Grandma. With 24/7 on-
device tech support, relatives would never have to field tech support
requests.

~~~
mbreese
But would Grandma really want a phone like this?

~~~
Zelphyr
If the original (non-Fire) Kindle is any indication; no. I gave mine a pre-
Paperwhite Kindle and she loved it. Then someone bought her a Kindle Fire ("If
you like that you'll LOVE this. You can play games!"). She hated it and went
back to the regular Kindle.

Turns out, if she wants to play games she'll grab a deck of cards.

------
drcode
The compelling feature on this phone everyone's missing:

Let's say you have to browse through a bunch of stuff on your phone. The very
moment you start doing this, you have a problem: There's a #%&! finger
covering up the screen now!

The idea behind this phone is simple: All browsing of information is done by
tilting the screen, leaving the display completely unobstructed... sure, other
phones have tried to do this before. However, they were shit, because they
didn't involve 4 years of AI research to develop the world's most
sophisticated head positioning system ever, like Amazon apparently did. This
is probably the only way to make the tilting accurate enough to not be
annoying.

Only a company run by a fantically focused guy could put that much R&D towards
such a specific and non-obvious feature.

That said, until I can hold the device in my hand and verify that this "tilt
to browse information" is 100.00% perfectly implemented, this phone can still
end up being a failure, like all similar devices that came before it.

~~~
evilduck
I'm taking the opposite stance, this is a stupid gimmick until proven
otherwise. Scrolling with my finger can happen on the very edge of the screen
or area of interaction and it's easy to move out of viewing obstruction.

Tilt-based interaction has existed for years on iOS and Android using the
accelerometers. It's not a responsiveness or tracking issue, it's that
interacting with screens at oblique angles is annoying and many times
tilt/rotation interactions require pretty large arm movements compared to
finger movements, limiting when and where they're useful. Maybe Amazon made it
so amazing these can be overlooked or they were solved, but I'm not buying
into the idea just because it uses cool computer vision technology.

~~~
drcode
> this is a stupid gimmick until proven otherwise

I actually agree with you, I'm just saying "Hold on guys, a rational argument
can at least be made that this isn't just a stupid gimmick"

...but we have to try the device to know for sure...

------
JohnTHaller
From my post in another thread: It's $199 with a 2 year contract with AT&T,
meaning it's a $649 phone (now confirmed). It's priced with other 'premium'
phones like the iPhone 5S and the Galaxy S5 (both $199 with a 2 year contract,
$649 off contract at AT&T). Unfortunately, Amazon's other products like the
Kindle Fire are anything but premium hardware and software-wise. On the
software side this is partially due to the Amazon-first mentality for all
media and partially due to the extremely clunky Amazon UI and app store. Then
again, I wouldn't consider Samsung a 'premium' phone software-wise either due
to my poor experience with the Galaxy S4's clunky setup after coming form
'pure' Android. It's still far better than the Kindle Fire, though.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
How is this remotely competitive in a world full of $179 Moto G's? $219 Moto G
LTE's? Or even a $350 Nexus?

This seems like a phone from two or three years ago where $650 for a non-
premium brand would have been passable. I just bought a Moto G LTE for my wife
and its a wonderful phone. I don't see what Amazon would bring to the table
for an extra $420. That's almost 10 months of service right there.

~~~
JohnTHaller
I don't think it is. Except for people who buy on-contract and don't know
better about the pricing and features compared to other phones. Heck, you're
even stuck with Amazon's Silk browser... there's no Firefox or Chrome in the
Amazon App Store... so most users can forget about syncing this with anything.

~~~
opendais
Aka the MitM browser.

[http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-
fir...](http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fires-silk-
browser-sounds-privacy-alarm-bells/)

~~~
jonknee
Or you can uncheck the "Accelerate page loading" checkbox.

~~~
opendais
How many consumers do you honestly expect to know, recognize, and understand?

I can tell you from experience 0 of the ones I've encountered outside the
IT/Startup space were aware of that is what it does.

~~~
kevincrane
> How many consumers do you honestly expect to know, recognize, and
> understand?

Probably around the same number who care that their traffic is going through
Amazon first.

~~~
opendais
I bet if you went and talked to people if they were comfortable with all of
their online banking being routed through Amazon...I suspect most would say
No. Just a guess.

If you put it in terms they understand, they care.

~~~
gohrt
Amazon says HTTPS is not intercepted

[https://www.eff.org/2011/october/amazon-
fire%E2%80%99s-new-b...](https://www.eff.org/2011/october/amazon-
fire%E2%80%99s-new-browser-puts-spotlight-privacy-trade-offs)

Also, Amazon has most of its customers banking information already.

~~~
opendais
Credit card != Banking Information.

And if they pushed an update to change this [even accidentally], how would you
know?

~~~
yazaddaruvala
Thats silly.

How would you know if any browser pushed an update [even accidentally], with
this side effect?

~~~
opendais
1) Access a page you control to check.

2) Silk is the only one I know of that a mere coding error could cause this.
It isn't like Chrome and Firefox have a fleet of machines and code designed to
act as an always-on proxy.

------
ultimoo
I am always a little skeptical about gestures that involve physically moving
or tilting or swivelling the phone.

Maybe it works well for others but I find it getting very much in the way when
I use my phone in bed, or lying around on the couch, or walking even. On my
iPhone 5, I have the screen rotation locked for about 99% of the time.

~~~
lightblade
Remember this is paired with Dynamic Perspective. So maybe we'll see it
detects the orientation of your face before deciding on what to do.

~~~
DannyBee
What is the power usage of running 4 different cameras to do this?

I can't imagine it's small, so they must be not "always-on", which means there
is some tradeoff here.

------
morsch
... because a dedicated button to scan QR codes is what I wanted all along. At
least CueCat was free.
[http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/](http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/)

------
gecko
Does anyone know what actual mail and calendaring system this thing even uses?
What about maps? All the other stuff aside, texting, mail, calendar, and maps
cover about 80% of most people's phone use; if those pieces stink, it's going
to be a problem, and I see absolutely no mention of where they're getting map
data in particular.

~~~
chippy
uses Nokia Here maps apparently.

------
cnst
It weighs 160g! Only has 1280x720 resolution. They want me to buy it at 649$?
Are they insane?

Google Nexus 5 is already huge, but it still weighs only 130g, and at least it
has 1920x1080 resolution and only costs 349$.

For 649$, I might as well buy iPhone 5s, which only weighs 112g. Yet it
probably has the exact same battery life, due to the more efficient software!

Keep in mind, both Nexus 5 and iPhone 5s are almost a year old now, and this
thing is a brand new platform with such unappealing specs? Gimme a break!

~~~
m0dest
+1, weight has a huge impact on the user experience of a smartphone and
doesn't get enough attention in specs.

There is a significant comfort difference between light phones in the 100-150g
range (latest iPhone, Nexus, Galaxy) and heavy phones in the 150-200g range
(e.g. most Nokia Lumia phones, phablets).

720p for 4.7" doesn't bother me, as that's still full fidelity at 11".
[http://isthisretina.com/](http://isthisretina.com/)

~~~
cnst
I think there's a big difference between 720p and 1080p in how much shit fits
on the screen. I love 1080p @ 4,95" on my Nexus 5; the 720p @ 4,65" on Galaxy
Nexus is clearly not as good to have as much shit fit on the screen.

It's not so much the fidelity as it is about the screen real estate. People
tend to hold the phones much closer to their eyes than tablets, so, the extra
pixels don't go wasted.

------
Holbein
Both the object detection and that 3D tracking seems to be focused on
consumption. Consume more movies, more music, more books, more apps!

How sad. A phone is the most intimate piece of technology we have, and all
Amazon can think about making it a machine of consumption.

I wish they would have focused more enabling people to create things. You
know, help them be active. Help change the world.

There's just a slight hint here that Amazon considers its users more like
mindless money-spending media consuming drones.

A new device very rarely push the human race forward. The Kindle Phone is
clearly no such device.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Amazon can't make folks do anything. So they have to concentrate on what makes
money. They can sell features to developers as ways to make more money, thus
making their phone more desirable. Those are the creative folks anyway. So
Amazon enables them, and makes a buck too.

------
JeremyNT
So, essentially, a high end Android phone, only with Amazon's ecosystem rather
than Google's.

As others have mentioned, the price seems to be difficult to swallow. They'll
be fighting against Samsung's flagship Android device and the iPhone.

What sells the Amazon phone at that price? I don't think 3d tilting gimmicks
will.

Its primary differentiator versus other Android phones is that Amazon controls
the ecosystem for this device, rather than Google, and while that will appeal
to some, it will be a negative for others, and a non-factor to many.

I think the price needs to drop for this to be a real competitor, but I
certainly am glad to see Amazon entering the game even if the initial offering
doesn't seem to be a home run. More competition against Samsung and Apple is
good.

------
mmanfrin
This seems compelling if you're already sold on the Amazon ecosystem, but not
terribly so if you're not -- especially at that price.

~~~
MBCook
As an iPhone user, I already have access to the important parts of the Amazon
ecosystem (books, music, movies, TV shows).

But I have a superior app store.

The only big feature I think could prove important is their live-chat help.

~~~
evilduck
It seems like most of their Firefly feature is also available through Amazon's
'Flow' iOS app

~~~
rickyc091
Yep, it's also built into the default Amazon app. Hit search, then you'll see
the regular text search along with barcode scan / flow.

------
gambiting
So hang on....are you telling me that $199 is the cheapest price WITH A
CONTRACT??

Obviously things are different in the US,but in UK it's almost unfathomable to
be paying anything for the phone if you are getting a contract. Sometimes the
latest iphone will have an upfront cost of 29 pounds, but it's rare.

~~~
smallegan
It is worth mentioning that they are including a year of prime which is worth
$99 and a $10 credit on their store so the actual price compared to say an
iPhone is $90.

~~~
r00fus
And if you already have Prime? Do they refund a year of your subscription?

~~~
Zarel
They extend your subscription by a year.

------
asafira
My two cents: First, I'm actually surprised as to how much they are selling
the dynamic perspective, and I think I'm actually more interested in how well
firefly works. Dynamic perspective may be very "cool", but I'm not convinced
it's not just another fad --- will it change the way I work with my device?
Will it empower people? I don't see it as a transformative technology, and
it's almost as gimmicky as (if not as gimmicky as) some of the extra
"features" you get when you buy a galaxy S phone.

Firefly has a chance though. I've spent some time with google goggles before,
and I wasn't super impressed (have they updated it much recently?) --- on the
other hand, I've had some success with Amazon's Flow app, in which you point
your camera towards a product (in a store, for example), and it tells you the
Amazon price for it. Will Firefly work well enough for people to rely on it on
the host of use-cases that Amazon gave in its presentation?

Other quick thoughts: Amazon claims some great battery life on the page, but
didn't mention it at all in their presentation today. Also, it's kind of weird
to think I would have _6_ cameras on me at any point in time. Are those
cameras accessible to developers, beyond their dynamic display apk? Lastly,
how will this compare with google's "Project Tango" efforts?

~~~
ignoramous
3P Android apps will not have access to the "other 4" cameras.

As for the battery life, there have been some amazing initiatives and
innovations to squeeze every ounce of juice from it. I wouldn't be surprised
if the stats claimed on Amazon.com were indeed right.

Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but I do not represent them, or speak on their
behalf.

~~~
asafira
I hope the battery stats are right, but I would guess they probably aren't.
Overestimating the battery life seems to be an industry standard thing =/

------
fiatmoney
So who's the actual manufacturer? I had read at one point that Google has
locked up most major cell manufacturers so they are prevented from offering
handsets with non-Google-integrated Android. That and the somewhat lackluster
screen leads me to believe it's a no-name OEM.

~~~
bobbles
May have to wait for tear-downs to get a better idea.

~~~
eclipxe
No need, it is made by Amazon. Period.

------
boxcardavin
The trojan feature for Amazon is the eye-tracking. Tracking a user's gaze
while they are shopping is the ultimate way to increase sales, and this
extends to eye-tracking while a user is browsing. I imagine that even Google
would want the information that Amazon is going to generate.

~~~
MikeCapone
You shop while holding your phone in front of your face?

Mine's in my pocket when I'm at the store.

~~~
boxcardavin
No no, watching where your eyes are looking on the screen itself. Where the
dart to on a website or shopping app.

------
m0dest
They've always been uniquely talented at creating indecipherable URLs for
important pages like this one.

~~~
ToastyMallows
Try [http://smile.amazon.com/firephone](http://smile.amazon.com/firephone)

~~~
lighthazard
Today, I discovered smile.amazon.com. Thanks!

~~~
ToastyMallows
Also check out this extension for Chrome that turns amazon.com ->
smile.amazon.com

[http://www.smilealways.io/](http://www.smilealways.io/)

------
bryanlarsen
"Great phone for reading?" If they really cared about the reading experience,
they would have put an AMOLED screen on it. AMOLED screens are far superior
for night-time reading, which is when most people do their reading.

~~~
devindotcom
Agree - he said they were "lavish" in their attention to make it a good phone
for reading and I'm like how much can you actually do? It's a 4.7 inch 720p
LCD, there's your reading experience. Reading on a phone plain sucks for
anything more than a couple articles. Autoscroll doesn't float my boat either.

------
TrainedMonkey
This phone will find a market amongst amazon addicts. While not bleeding edge,
specs are somewhat solid[0].

However what set Kindle Fire apart from competition and allowed it to gain
foothold in the market was competitive pricing, I see none of that here.
Amazon is obviously making a bet that software they are shipping with the
phone will be a killer feature that will overcome the shortcomings, I do not
think broader market will agree.

[0] Until you look at the price and AT&T only lock in, considering that, specs
are mediocre at best.

~~~
stcredzero
_Amazon is obviously making a bet that software they are shipping with the
phone will be a killer feature, I do not think broader market will agree._

If the barriers to get users to spend money are lower on Amazon's phone, then
this is _exactly the right move_ to capture developer and content producer
mindshare for their ecosystem!

~~~
TrainedMonkey
Good point, made the edit to clarify that I meant that I do not think that
software alone as a killer feature would be enough, considering the price of
the phone.

------
VikingCoder
/sigh

I really wish Amazon would just make all of their obviously Android devices
into actual, Google-approved Android devices. Google Apps and all. I get that
they want their own market for apps, etc. But yuck.

Also, I wish things like Amazon Movies would just stinkin work on Android
devices, like a normal app. I mean, come on... I have like 6 Android devices,
1 Kindle Fire, 1 TiVo, and 1 Roku. Why are the 6 Android devices left behind?
Ug.

/whine

------
jrub
Maybe someone can enlighten me; but why does AT&T seem like a popular launch
partner with new mobile handsets?

The only reasons I can come up with are a) money (AT&T taking a smaller cut of
subsidies/paying the manufacturer more for the device) and b) "portability"
between the US provider and International providers.

Are there any other reasons? Or is it really that simple?

~~~
fixedd
I'm guessing it's cause they're bigger than T-Mobile and Sprint and less
inclined towards crippling phones than Verizon.

------
talles
Kinda unfortunate for Firefox OS guys. Amazon's Fire Phone OS is called Fire
OS... definitely gonna confuse some folks...

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Sounds like a trademark case waiting to happen but looking it seems neither
"firefox os" nor "fire os" is trademarked in EU or US.

~~~
e15ctr0n
Firefox OS is trademarked with the USPTO. [https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/foundation/trademarks/list/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/foundation/trademarks/list/)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
It didn't turn up in a TESS search (at
[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=4802...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=4802:8drgag.1.1)),
perhaps it's an image mark, not words.

------
pwnna
Does anyone know what version of Android this is based on?

~~~
hind3nburg
Compatible with Android 4.2.2, API level 17

[https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/devices/fire-p...](https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/devices/fire-
phone/docs/fire-phone-specifications)

------
sundvor
Slightly off topic regarding the phone, however still related to Amazon: As an
e-reader enthusiast, I was scanning the news this morning hoping there'd be a
new Kindle e-ink / e-paper reader announced. Alas, there's no news on this
front yet?

Currently I have the old DXG and the first Paperwhite, having also had the
unit preceding the Paperwhite. Whilst the Paperwhite is fantastic for novels,
the DXG whilst nice and big is dragging its heels now with no software updates
in a long time.

I am wishing for an even higher higher resolution screen with colour for
reading technical books (some illustrations tend to become unreadable in grey-
scale), and reintroduction of side buttons.

------
ufmace
All of the features they demoed in that video seem pretty gimmicky at best.
The kind of stuff that you show off once in a while, but never actually use.
Tilt to scroll sounds like it would be maddeningly imprecise compared to
finger scrolling. With so many functions apparently tied to various gestures,
it seems like you better be real careful using this phone when doing anything
but sitting still and devoting your full attention to it.

Meanwhile, where's email, photography, calendering, web browsing, contact
management and sync? Who's their map data provider? You know, all of the stuff
that you actually depend on a phone to have day to day?

------
curiousphil
I'll definitely be interested to see what compelling applications people find
for Dynamic Perspective. Currently most of the applications that they
previewed look like they aren't very far off from what could be accomplished
with accelerometer data. It's mostly people tilting the device and seeing a
different perspective which isn't too hard to simulate with an
accelerometer... Still excited to see a new player in the space that will
hopefully help push innovation.

------
jayshahtx
I'm always surprised by Amazon's lack of fanfare. Even for such a huge
release, their product page is literally the same as that of something as
random as a blanket

------
beyondcompute
When will people stop building map apps that are reacting to gestures or the
device position in a confusing manner? I love my paper map so much! When it
lays on the table I can touch it with my finger and it won't wiggle or wobble.
I can just use it without fear that one subtle movement from my side will
obscure everything I see and I'll have to search the place I were looking for
from the beginning.

------
guelo
What sucks about this, and Android in general, is that if you have an app that
uses Maps or Push or a bunch of other basic features, you have to write tricky
duplicate code to make it work with both Amazon and Google's systems and jump
through hoops to make it work on both devices. And it's getting worse with
Google's moving more functionality into their proprietary Play Services lib.

You would think that Android's vaunted Intent system would be perfect for
this, but Intents are basically dead for cross-system functionality, there few
open Intents published with android.intent.action. _, a lot of the good stuff
is published by google as com.android._ (which should really be com.google.*)
so you can't rely on it unless you know you're running on a google phone.

Google is not really working towards the interest of AOSP, it should be taken
from Google's full control and placed under a neutral body so its full
potential for developers can be realized.

------
miles_matthias
The gestures, especially auto scroll, seem to lend themselves to phablets
especially well.

Market fit is really interesting and confusing (see nostromo's comment at the
top for great discussion).

I'm a little tired of the tech giants trying to convert every digital thing I
do in my life to their platform. I like my iPhone with my Amazon Prime with my
Dropbox thank you. I realize they're trying to include more people on the
platform and just want another point of entry, but I hope people still standup
for their own choices instead of going all in on one of the big players.

Lastly, what does this continued push on custom android oses mean for Android
development? You already have a host of operating system versions and screen
sizes to deal with when developing for android, now there are more and more
custom OSes with different features. You'll submit to different stores and
have different apps? Blagh..

------
cnst
BTW, it's not even released yet!

> Pre-order Now

> This item will be released on July 25, 2014.

E.g. even [http://oneplus.net/one](http://oneplus.net/one) will likely come
sooner than this! And at half the price, plus much better specs!

I still think that 4.7" Fire @ 160g and 5.5" OnePlus One @ 162g is way too
heavy for a phone. At least OnePlus One has a much bigger screen, comes at
half the price, and has more DYI OSS under the hood.

iPhone 5s is only 112g, Google Nexus 5 is 130g, iPhone 5c is 132g, Amazon Fire
Phone is 160g.

The extra 30g to 48g is very noticeable in your pocket, and you're not even
getting a bigger screen, plus if you compare with iPhone, those extra 48g
don't even seem add extra battery life, since iOS is just so much more
efficient.

------
infecto
Well at least that preview video makes sense now with the dynamic perspective.
Curious how functional that really is. I cannot think of an immediate use of
why I would want that on a communication/media device but would love to be
wrong.

~~~
stock_toaster
I could see it being interesting for games or for Augmented Reality type
stuff. Without an actual compelling use though, it does seem a bit gimmicky.

------
bteitelb
A tilt UI is ridiculous. In many environments, there will be horrible glare at
many angles due to overhead light sources. If you want to solve the finger-in-
front-of-the-screen problem, put a capacitive touchpad on the back.

~~~
ecoqba
not a bad idea. having your index finger do all the scrolling or mouse-like
movement.

------
asimpletune
The 3D capability of the phone has a lot of potential in terms of shopping.
Imagine not this generation, or the next, but the one after that, being able
to just lay the phone down flat and swipe through holograms of different
products for sale on Amazon. You could draw your hands outward and that would
scale the item. You could flip your thumb like there's an imaginary coin on it
and a coin would appear next to the item your shopping for to show scale.

I'm not interested in making any predictions as far as how the phone will fare
against Apple and Android, as this is literally a few hours old.

------
frik
How does the _Mayday_ on-device tech support work?

    
    
      Amazon expert will appear to help you via live video
    

Will it be a Siri/Cortana like AI agent or a human from a Amazon call center?

~~~
mcpherrinm
They've already got this on the Fire tablets. It's a real person.

~~~
fudged71
Should have called it SnapFire

------
xxxmadraxxx
"One-handed reading" —at last. A phone designed for mobile porn.

------
thrush
The Amazon Phone seems to capitalize on content consumption of text, audio,
video, and the abstract (through purchases). In my mind, this is what the
smart phone should be all about.

~~~
reeses
Well timed after prime music imports your itunes library.

no hairy workarounds to replace an iphone in your mac ecosystem, which is
something google has not achieved.

(yes, other than apps, but that will follow)

~~~
justrudd
For music, I agree. But there is other content - TV shows, Movies, books, etc.
My iTunes purchased video aren't going to play on an Amazon Fire unless I
remove all the DRM from it.

------
neovive
The price will clearly come down over time and the hardware will improve just
as they did with the Kindle. The value proposition for Amazon is very similar
to the Kindle: sell a device that adds further value to the Amazon ecosystem
and drives demand and ad-hoc purchasing. They also have more room to
experiment with a phone vs. a book reader since there is less focus on the
reading experience.

------
mkr-hn
If this is as smooth as my Kindle Fire (newest one), I might want one in 2-3
versions. I keep finding things on my first Android phone that could have been
fixed with a little more polish. My Kindle Fire is perfect in every way.
Amazon seems to understand how important it is to get expensive consumer
electronics right and not leave a lot of rough edges.

~~~
dark_night_tim
Try a nexus 7...

~~~
mkr-hn
A Kindle Fire was the only tablet I could afford at the time.

------
mahyarm
One thing I find annoying with my sony z1 compared to an iphone 5 is how the
camera just dies half of the time whenever I try to take a picture from a
locked phone. In iOS it's never a problem. Lets hope amazon doesn't screw it
up with their phone. Another annoying thing is how it refocuses between each
photo, decreasing burst speed.

------
_halcyon_
It doesn't seem like this phone offers enough to differentiate itself from
what's already on the market. Bezos warned everyone though that previous
Amazon products started out with underwhelming reviews and later were
successful.

If anything I see this phone getting cheaper/better very quickly, much like
they did with their tablet product.

------
LeicaLatte
Good show by Amazon. The "gimmick" poised to be a sure hit in Asian, African
and European markets.

Anything that competes with Apple, Samsung, Google is by default good. There
is definitely space in the market for a phone like this. Amazon phones set to
sell much more than Amazon tablets.

------
awestley
Finally a solution other than thumb removal! High four to Amazon!! (I already
had my thumbs removed).

------
foobarbecue
Can someone explain the real reason why the kindle fire phone has six cameras?
All the articles say it's for tilt scrolling and similar features that are
already easily accomplished without using any camera data. Are they trying to
do some Google Tango style stuff?

------
herf
Eye tracking that works will be useful for yet-unimagined augmented reality
apps. Or at least Mission Impossible:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydIPKkjBlMw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydIPKkjBlMw)

------
the_watcher
This very much seems like a v1 entry into the market for them. Improving the
ease of 3D photos will probably be their biggest focus, as the "take a picture
and buy" feature is the key for them being able to eventually reduce the cost.

------
chrismorgan
Looks like it has features only designed for use in the right hand? That’s
poor accessibility, providing severely degraded behaviour for around ⅒ of the
population, the left-handed people.

I wonder whether they would sell a left-handed version…

------
comatose_kid
Multiple cameras are interesting. It would be neat if the phone could use eye-
tracking to auto-scroll content as your eyes reach the bottom of the screen
(books would be good use-case - perhaps they are already doing this)

------
mverwijs
I would think that constantly tilting the screen will consantly change the
view. And the reflections of the suroundings. Just when you have a good view
of the screen, you need to change it in order to navigate.

------
mattste
The SDKs are exciting, but being an ATT exclusive really limits the ecosystem.

------
stcredzero
How about a stand that makes it easy to use the phone as a game console? (HDMI
output for TV) With all of those front cameras, would it be workable to have
motion sensing games?

------
evolve2k
"For a limited time, Fire phone comes with 1,000 Amazon Coins (a $10 value)
for apps, games, and in-app purchases. Plus, save up to 10% anytime you use
Amazon Coins."

~~~
r00fus
Is there any consumer who actually desires virtual credits/currency in lieu of
hard cash?

------
antihero
Honestly I preferred it when Amazon just delivered physical items to me.

This bullshit tie-in with Prime and some stupid streaming crap I don't want
has just left a sour taste in my mouth.

------
slm_HN
There's a lot of info, but I can't find what the phone is made of. Using nice
metal phones has convinced me never to buy a cheap plastic piece of junk
again.

------
contingencies
Dynamic Perspective: _Perhaps both less accurate and slower than today 's
alternatives, though nice if you're one-handed browsing or need the full
screen visibility during scroll. Real world use cases? Reading porn.
Conclusion: pretty gimmicky._

Firefly technology: _Advertising wet dream, in reality a cheap OCR meets
keyword database (pay to be listed?). Not indifferent to certain Firefox
plugins re: post-OCR recognition, not indifferent to other phones re: OCR
capability. It 's just a wrapper. Real world use cases? Limited. Conclusion:
gimmicky._

Mayday: _Video support? Totally gimmicky._

Bonus US-market centrism. Unimpressed.

------
tiglionabbit
Peek? Seriously? We have to tilt the device in order to see certain things? We
have to look at the device sideways? That can't make it easy to read things.

~~~
JohnTHaller
It'll be great in the sun :)

------
Raphmedia
Most of the features are really new. However, they are one little step ahead,
well designed and fit into a nice looking ecosystem. I like it. I really do.

------
abc_lisper
What's amazon angle here? Why are they doing this?

~~~
ctdonath
To make it easier to buy stuff from Amazon. Right down to the "press dedicated
button, get picture of arbitrary product you're looking at, get Amazon.com
product page for it". Just like Apple making a closed ecosystem that deeply
persuades users to buy apps from the App Store, music & video from the iTunes
Store, store data on iCloud, buy more same-ecosystem devices, etc.

~~~
abc_lisper
Hmm.. This makes sense. So they would offer suggestions on what to buy based
on what your general interests are.

------
akilism
Cant wait for day when you get to use all the new fancy press conference
smartphone features and not recharge your phone multiple times in 24 hours.

------
jagermo
Interesting. Did you see that they replaced the Google App Store with their
own? That means an additional revenue stream from app purchases. Clever

------
marincounty
I was hopeing the Amazon phone would do something really novel like lower
digital rates? I saw AT&T and the steam was gone.

------
moe
I wonder how the hardware (esp. camera) compares to the other high-end
androids and whether you can run stock android on it.

~~~
asafira
I'm convinced it's actually a very hard problem. Cameras on android have been
subpar across the board for years now, but it's a feature everyone looks for
in a smartphone. There's no way manufacturers aren't dedicating some focus on
them but just not succeeding much yet.

------
flippyhead
It's nice to see Seattle being promoted. 'cuz, you know, maps and photos are
almost always of SF. Go Seattle!

------
evolve2k
With 24/7 on demand video support I'm wondering if this could be a good 'phone
for Grandma'.

------
mrweasel
Weeee it a phone... like any other, but with it's own currency (Amazon coins)
so I don't know the value of anything.

If Amazon build a phone that they believe is better than other smart phone on
the market, wonderful, I hope they sell a bunch of the an make a profit.
Honestly though: It's a smart phone like any other, but with a gimmicky
feature and similarly priced (over-priced).

------
rgawdzik
Why are they showing off auto scroll lag at 1:30 in the "See what customers
have to say"?

------
btrombley
Amazingly ambitious move by Amazon, which I have to respect. Yes, it will be
extremely hard to take market share from Samsung and Apple, but there also
hasn't been much innovation in the smart phone market recently, so the
opportunity exists if Amazon takes a novel approach. Or maybe they just
compete on price, as they have so many times before.

~~~
Haul4ss
The funny thing is, they're not competing on price. Sans contract, this phone
is a hefty $649.

When I heard Amazon would have a phone, I thought for sure it would be very
cheap, possibly even free with Prime membership. That would be a game-changing
move.

Now, it's just another Android phone, albeit with a couple extra bells and
whistles. But with an inferior app store.

------
lnanek2
Can't get the videos to load, guess their site is overloaded...pretty rare for
amazon

------
fortepianissimo
Does anyone worry about the privacy implication of being constantly watched by
your phone?

~~~
ewoodrich
No more than I'm worried about the front-facing camera on all of my devices.

~~~
opendais
Don't forget the open mic. ;)

I don't care if they can see I'm ugly. I know that already as does everyone
else.

------
mtsmithhn
This will be great for people driving and reading a book on their phone with
one hand....

------
thisjepisje
I can already see on the cover of the magazine that it's the Elle of April
2014.

------
Kiro
What's with the negativity? If I lived in the US I would buy it immediately.

------
infinite_beam
Bezos did not talk about the basic phone functionality of call/text.

~~~
cory123444
Those should just be expected to work.

~~~
fudged71
Or the texting capabilities are in fact sub-par. Both Apple and Google have
had to double down on messaging UX/functionality because they are used so
much, plus Facebook, Whatsapp, and Snapchat.

Messaging is really important.

------
oxama
Introducing a phone with some fancy options as an innovation! seriously!

------
bndw
Nice Amazon affiliate link

------
chemmail
Unfortunately that thing looks terrible. Looks like a generic iphone with ugly
android wrapper. They really need something flashy to somehow pull it over
rather than have any new features. Afterall smartphones are still status
symbols for a couple more years.

------
oxama
Bezos is the new Jobs, except that Jobs introduced his phone in 2007

------
the_cat_kittles
i still dont understand why someone hasn't put a sensor to scroll on the back
or the side of the phone- i would prefer that you tilting since thats so
imprecise

~~~
r00fus
It's clearly not implemented due to the phone case lobby :)

Seriously though, implementing hardware features that make cases unworkable
would put a damper on sales.

------
tchai_
Looks like every other generic 'droid smartphone. Yawn.

------
smegel
No Youtube in list of apps...interesting.

Not cheap either...

~~~
stonogo
none of the kindle fires have a youtube app either. you browse the youtube
mobile site and the videos play in the default media player.

------
natelam
For all developers who want specs, etc. Check out their site here:
[http://bit.ly/1yjPpkA](http://bit.ly/1yjPpkA)

~~~
owenversteeg
I'm guessing you were downvoted because of the URL shortener. It goes to
[https://developer.amazon.com/public/community/post/Tx2SBWI72...](https://developer.amazon.com/public/community/post/Tx2SBWI728CPXHZ/Announcing-
the-Amazon-Fire-App-and-Game-Experiences-Never-before-Possible)

------
feld
I'll wait for the B&N Nook Phone

------
sidcool
I am very impressed with the phone. The technology is a giant leap from the
current Android phones. Kudos to Amazon and the design team.

------
krisgenre
'Fire' Phone? seriously? That would have sounded better if was by Mozilla.

------
antjanus
This feels like an April Fool's joke. Wonder how well it will do.

------
glasz
mayday seems like someone's wet dream.

------
gcb0
fire phone? fire OS?

what are they trying to do? put nails in the firefox phone/firefox OS coffin?

------
iffycan
The only smartphone with...

Emma Watson

was my first reaction.

------
you_dont_know
[http://goo.gl/GPrHx8](http://goo.gl/GPrHx8)

------
DontBeADick
I wonder if Mozilla will put up a fight over the name now that they could be
directly competing.

FireFly also sounds very similar to FireBug.

~~~
e15ctr0n
... and Fire OS to Firefox OS.

------
dmazin
Dynamic Perspective thing... The shake to undo is possibly the most hated
interaction on iPhones. I don't know if I would want to have to do physical
stuff to the phone itself to reveal information that should be accessible via
touch (or visible at all times).

~~~
danabramov
Not sure why you're downvoted, I also hate Shake to Undo.

------
stcredzero
From the "About Fire Phone" video:

 _" It's almost like the world is a hyperlink."_

That right there is gold! That is UX victory and low friction for users in a
nutshell.

~~~
lancer383
I can't tell if you're joking or not - personally, I cringed and felt like I
was watching an episode of Silicon Valley for much of that video.

~~~
stcredzero
Take it both ways at once. That is the essence of reducing friction. Amazon
does better at that than at marketing.

------
johnvschmitt
"Phone" Such an anachronism.

When the device is used for phone calls <1% of the time, can we now call this
something else? Maybe:

"Pocket Internet System"? PIS?

If you use your phone for actual phone calls more than 5%, let us know.

