
Amazon Launch Event - p-pat-ni
https://www.amazon.com/oc/launchevent/
======
eob
I'm going to get downvoted for this, but this video is hilarious when you
imagine they're trying out some sort of sex toy attachment. Just watch it
again with that in mind.

~~~
fractalsea
That works too well. I found the comment "that's pretty damn intuitive" the
most funny with the image of it being a sex toy in mind.

~~~
schwap
"I would use that _alot_ " Caused me to actually crack up.

------
Fuzzwah
All the head moving made me think back to Jonny Lee's wiimote headtracking 3d
display.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-
Uw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw)

Perhaps Amazon have an eye tracking system which can do the same with out the
need for the user to be wearing infra red leds?

~~~
clarky07
Yeah I was coming here to say the same thing. Seems like it is definitely
doing some sort of motion tracking.

~~~
tseabrooks
I'm actually thinking this is either "Kinect" on a tablet and/or eye tracking.
The application specifically talks about additional sensors. being used to
build apps. I'm not sure head tracking is a strong use case for additional
apps. But something with the depth of MS's Kinect or eye tracking could be
really interesting.

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niico
They will be launching their smartphone. Source:
[http://bgr.com/2014/04/15/amazon-smartphone-photos-specs-
kin...](http://bgr.com/2014/04/15/amazon-smartphone-photos-specs-kindle-phone-
exclusive/)

~~~
miralabs
"he device houses an additional four front-facing cameras that work with other
sensors to facilitate the software’s 3D effects."

I wonder how the battery life of this will be like.

~~~
jarkarj
I was thinking that 4 cameras seems a little excessive when you only really
need one for head tracking. But maybe it has 4 and uses one at a time -
switching between them when/if one is covered.

~~~
nathannecro
Well, you need only need 1 camera for lateral tracking, but I believe you need
at least 2 cameras for depth tracking. Possibly a third for eye tracking and a
fourth for Skype.

------
0x0
The questions here in the form certainly give some hints about what it's
about:

 _" Are you interested in developing apps utilizing a new type of sensor?"_

 _" Describe an innovative way in which you have used gyroscopes,
accelerometers, or other device sensors in your app development."_

~~~
Theodores
The clue is in the title: it is the drone!

Those people are just watching some wild footage of it on some tablet, the
teaser is there to just throw people off the scent, gyroscopes etc: must be
the drone.

Should I place a bet on that or would I be best to go with the 3d eye-tracking
kindle-phone?

~~~
aidenn0
You do know that most (maybe all) modern smartphones and tablets have
accelerometers in them, which are often gyroscope based, right?

~~~
reitzensteinm
Further, the mass production of such parts due to their inclusion in phones is
essentially the reason why inexpensive drones are viable today.

Chris Anderson famously called it the peace dividend of the smartphone wars.

------
Nogwater
Talk of amazon phone with multiple cameras:

[http://www.cnet.com/news/rumored-amazon-phone-six-cameras-
su...](http://www.cnet.com/news/rumored-amazon-phone-six-cameras-summer-
launch/)

and:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6485698](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6485698)

Going back more than a year: [http://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-said-to-be-
developing-3d-sma...](http://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-said-to-be-
developing-3d-smartphone/)

------
rikkus
From the head moving and what they're saying about it, it's definitely this:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K39Q9zvQoE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K39Q9zvQoE)

~~~
danvayn
Yes, I would definitely use this often.

------
Antiquarian
Is there anything discernible in the reflection on the hipster-glasses at
0:42?

... enhance ...

~~~
colinbartlett
[http://i.imgur.com/oe2f1pP.png](http://i.imgur.com/oe2f1pP.png)

Tough to see much, but you do see a shadow of her hand and the proportions
indicate to me a tablet-sized device not a phone.

~~~
domas
It's definitely a phone in the video:
[http://i.imgur.com/MgBcxMw.png](http://i.imgur.com/MgBcxMw.png)

You can see its top at the bottom of the photo.

~~~
User9812
Yep, it's definitely a phone sized device, and you can see her scrolling with
her finger in the reflection, so it's a touch screen. Now, what's actually
unique about it that separates it from the millions of similar devices, I
guess we'll have to wait and see. Perhaps the display stays square to your
head? I mean, if you're viewing the screen at a slight angle, it skews the
perspective to look straight?

[http://i.imgur.com/ExL1OqV.png](http://i.imgur.com/ExL1OqV.png)

There's a quick photoshop of a phone at an angle and the display square. Now,
you wouldn't purposely use the phone at such an extreme angle, but when you're
typing, playing games, in bed, etc, it might make things easier to use. Fairly
straightforward, it would just be tracking the location of your head, and
adjust the perspective of the display.

~~~
drcode
clever idea, but that just seems like a really small, inconsequential feature
to play up that much...

------
lominming
Everyone is tilting their head or the device. Definitely something related to
a 3D interface, but it has to be something more that just a 3D interface.

------
sbashyal
I am specially intrigued by "Do you have machine learning experience?"
question in the developer section for the invitation request.

------
rglover
At this rate, one day I'm going to buy a house on Amazon.

------
lordlarm
Link to video:
[https://d3d73dg4t65dlz.cloudfront.net/videos/customer_tease_...](https://d3d73dg4t65dlz.cloudfront.net/videos/customer_tease_0603.mp4)
(it was in the source-code)

------
ColinWright
Split discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7847951](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7847951)

------
yanokwa
It's a phone. You can see the top of the device in their promo video at
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erUZQ9GK0sE&t=41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erUZQ9GK0sE&t=41).

[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpVCE7aCMAA_DDJ.png:large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpVCE7aCMAA_DDJ.png:large)
has a tweaked screen capture.

------
k-mcgrady
It's rumoured to be a phone with a 3D display - but I don't see why I would
want that. It's certainly a cool USP but it seems like gimmick that will
quickly lose attention. Maybe they've found a use for it I haven't thought of
but I don't know anyone who has been requesting a 3D display on their phone.

~~~
6cxs2hd6
> I don't know anyone who has been requesting a 3D display on their phone.

Well, 7 years ago I didn't know anyone who was asking to eliminate physical
keyboards from phones.

I'm less skeptical of the merit of the idea (whatever exactly it turns out to
be), than I am of Amazon's first generation implementation (based on owning
1st gen versions of Kindle eReader and Kindle Fire).

~~~
rtpg
The thing is 3d screens have been a tested quantity (both on things like the
3DS and on a lot of phones in Japan). It's been far from a hit.

~~~
tachion
So does the phones without physical keyboards, using touch pens, until Apple
figured out how to eliminate that damn pen and just use fingers and here we
are today. I give it a benefit of doubt - I doubt that what has been done to
3d displays is all what _can_ be done ;)

------
jwilliams
Pause at just past 0:41. Woman is wearing a blue top. You can see a very-much
phone like device, with a headphone jack.

~~~
Holbein
Indeed. Here's a screengrab:

[http://i.imgur.com/b1edNBJ.png](http://i.imgur.com/b1edNBJ.png)

She's clearly using something that looks like a phone.

------
AVTizzle
Paraphrasing a friend from Amazon:

"Man, we have no clue what they're going to announce. Whatever it is has been
completely black-boxed. I'm guessing it might be a 3D projecting phone, but
that's based on exactly nothing. Plus, I'm not invited, so... hah."

------
swalsh
If there's anything i've learned through the years, if something is actually
industry breaking revolutionary... they have no need to hype the launch. It'll
get the press after the event.

I'm reminded of the time Opera "Changed the internet"

------
mdelias
Summoning user?id=nilium

Please make your wallpaper [1] work for this phone.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7843664](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7843664)

------
mik3y
3D effects are neat, but I'm betting Amazon is more excited to get a high
fidelity eyetracker in your phone.

Instant heatmaps, new types of ad creatives, new ad conversion modes, ...

------
tannerc
Judging by all of the head tilting in the video, perhaps something with 3D or
"holographic" projection?

~~~
OrwellianChild
That would be consistent with previous reports of 3D "sensing" tech on the
phone (not sure whether that means gestures, glasses-free 3D screen, or
something else).

Sources: [http://bgr.com/2014/04/22/amazon-smartphone-specs-details-
ki...](http://bgr.com/2014/04/22/amazon-smartphone-specs-details-kindle-phone-
exclusive/) [http://bgr.com/2014/05/01/amazon-smartphone-photos-kindle-
ph...](http://bgr.com/2014/05/01/amazon-smartphone-photos-kindle-phone-images-
exclusive/)

------
mmanfrin
Prediction: launching a Kindle Phone for a $30/m phone plan, free data for
Kindle/Amazon streaming.

~~~
swang
Hmm methinks you did not watch the video...

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Zelphyr
What video is everyone talking about?

~~~
pnachbaur
There is a video under "June 18 | Seattle" on the linked page

~~~
Zelphyr
Weird. I don't see it. Could be Ghostery or some similar ad blocking plugin I
guess.

~~~
esbonsa
You don't need any add-ons to selectively block flash nowadays on Firefox...
Menu - Add-ons - Plugins - Flash "Ask to activate" instead of "Always
activate"

------
caseyf7
Looks like it will be a lot like this:
[http://www.getmoju.com/](http://www.getmoju.com/)

~~~
tachion
I hope not - an application that does something that looks almost like video
already available to any modern phone and requires motion to be displayed?
Hardly worth the launch event, hype, marketing money&effort and doesnt seem
any way revolutionary or cool to me. But of course, I might be absolutely
wrong about it and that's cool too.

