Tag Archives: kindle phone

Amazon Sent Invites for the June 18 Launch of a Never-Seen-Before Device

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Amazon 3D Smartphone

Using a teaser ad that featured people moving their heads around a mysterious object while expressing their excitement, Amazon invited the world to a launch event that will take place on June 18.

Most likely, the mysterious device that Amazon is planning to launch two weeks from now is the long-awaited 3D smartphone the e-tailer has been rumored to work on. In the teaser video, people are looking at a device from different angles, suggesting that whatever is displayed on the screen has multiple facets. That would be the case with 3D displays, but the reaction of the witnesses is quite unsettling.

Most of them are asking (rhetorically) how is the 3D effect achieved, and claim that such an approach has never been taken before by anyone else. This could be explained by the fact that Amazon’s 3D smartphone will be equipped with 6 front-facing cameras, according to the previously leaked images, which will identify the position of the face and display the 3D content accordingly.

Much like Amazon’s tablets, the 3D smartphone (which will hopefully get a name like Kindle Phone) will also run a heavily modified version of Android, and will sport many of the e-tailer’s apps instead of the services provided by Google. Still, not long after the launch, there will be custom ROMs out there, so this shouldn’t be a reason to panic.

Amazon might also reveal at the launch of its 3D smartphone that it has partnered with AT&T in order to create a sponsored data plan that doesn’t count audio and video streaming from the e-tailer’s services as network traffic. From this point of view, more carriers should make such strategic partnerships.

I really enjoyed the ending, since the last reaction is of a guy who asks if he has to give it back. While confronted with the opportunity of seeing an innovative product ahead of the rest of the planet, I guess most people would ask that, or at least think it.

Once Amazon unveils its mysterious product, I’ll cover the details, even if it isn’t the long-awaited 3D smartphone. In the opinion of many, launching anything else but a smartphone would be a terrible disappointment at this point. Hopefully the hardware will match the expectations and a new contender will appear for the first place in the Android market.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the six cameras sported by Amazon’s 3D smartphone, and the first rumors regarding the 3D smartphone made by Amazon.

Amazon Kindle Fire Phone Images Leaked on the Internet

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Amazon Kindle Fire Phone 01

Amazon’s long-awaited Kindle Fire smartphone, which according to a WSJ report is due for release in June, has showed up on the Web in the form of leaked images.

Unlike typical leaked images, the following ones don’t give everything away, as the Kindle Fire phone‘s actual design is hidden by a bulky case. Still, the images are enough for giving us an idea about how Amazon’s phone will look like. Some details regarding the device’s 3D interface have also surfaced recently, and there seem to be differences between Amazon’s implementation and the one seen in Nintendo’s 3DS handheld gaming console.

The e-tailer’s approach is believed to be similar to the parallax interface elements in Apple’s iOS 7, just better. The previous rumors about the phone having six cameras are now confirmed by the leaked images. While the resolution of the rear-facing camera is thought to be 13 MP, the technical specs of the others are unknown. Obviously, one of the front facing cameras will be used for video calls and selfies, while the other four infrared cameras, which are placed in each corner of the face, will be able to detect the viewer’s head position and adjust the pseudo-3D content displayed on the screen accordingly.

Spec-wise, Amazon’s phone should come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU and 2GB of RAM, but the number of cores and the particular processor model are unknown. If we are to compare Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets with the ones from the Nexus family, the e-tailer’s offer leaves a lot to be desired, but that’s not to say that they’re making bad products. Amazon will most probably equip its smartphone with a heavily modified version of Android, in the vein of the one available in Kindle Fire tablets.

Amazon also opted for a 4.7-inch low pixel density display with a resolution of 720p HD. This really makes the Kindle Fire phone a mid-range product, as the competition’s offers pack either 1080p or even 4K displays.

The major selling point of this phone remains the 3D interface, and that’s exactly what will set Amazon’s device apart from the competitors. It goes without saying that the e-tailer will have to work together with app developers to make as many apps compatible as possible. There is also a major downside about this device, namely its availability limited to the US, in the beginning.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the early rumors surrounding Amazon’s 3D smartphone and Kindle Phone’s six cameras.

Amazon’s Kindle Phone Will Come with Six Cameras

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Amazon Kindle Smartphone

Project Aria, as Amazon’s Kindle phone is called, according to the recent reports of several blogs, will feature six cameras that will take gesture control to a whole new level.

Even though the name of the phone is terribly uninspired, as it makes people think of Google’s Project Ara modular phone, Amazon’s smartphone may actually be different from the products of this giant e-tailer’s competitors.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, one of the most accurate Apple analysts in the world, has recently made a prediction regarding the Kindle phone in a note that ended in BGR‘s possession: “We predict Amazon (US) will launch its own brand smartphone in 3-6 months, using the same hardware strategy as used for its e-reader and tablet. The supply chain will start stocking up materials in 2Q14 for production. We estimate required components will amount to 700k-1.2mn units, and assembly to 300-600k units. Related suppliers will start to see benefits in 2Q14.”

Kuo also pointed out what the major selling point of the Kindle smartphone will be, respectively the six cameras: “The key feature of the smartphone, we believe, will be the six cameras. Aside from the main camera, which is used to take pictures, and the sub camera, used for video conferencing (these are both found in all smartphones), we think the other four cameras will be used for gesture control, allowing users to operate the smartphone without touching the touch panel.”

The analyst is aware that to further differentiate itself from its competitors, Amazon will have to rely on its services, rather than on the smartphone itself, really a strategy that the e-tailer has already applied on the other Kindle products: “Given the highly competitive smartphone market, Amazon will have to provide users with a unique experience to differentiate its phone from other brands. It would do this by integrating the smartphone with its own services such as e-commerce. If Amazon’s smartphone is a hit, we would expect shipments to grow significantly due to the hardware features and business model. At the current stage, when market acceptance is unclear, we preliminarily forecast shipments of 300-600k units in 2Q14 and 2-3mn units in 2014.”

Hopefully, Kuo’s predictions are right and we’ll get to see Amazon’s smartphone sometime in the near future. Judging by the products that this company has already launched, there is no doubt that the Kindle phone will be different. Exactly how remains to be seen.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Google’s Project Ara modular smartphone and the Project Tango smartphone that is aware of space and motion.

Former Windows Phone Director Robert Williams joins Amazon, stirs rumor pot

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Former Windows Phone Director Robert Williams joins Amazon, stirs rumor pot

We're no CSI, but if we were Amazon, planning to make a phone, we'd definitely want to make sure developers were happy, that we had some weight in the patent world, and had an idea of the end design. With that all sorted, we'd likely hire a senior Director of Business Development from a major competitor -- which is exactly what has happened. Robert Williams, formerly of said position at Microsoft Windows Phone is joining his fellow WP alumni, Brandon Watson, over at camp Bezos as Director of the App Store. Of course, this could just be a strategic move on behalf of the company's Android market, and the Amazon phone is still very much just a rumor, but with more pieces of the puzzle starting to fit, and the book seller's ability to turn things on their head, we're far from ruling it out just yet.

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Former Windows Phone Director Robert Williams joins Amazon, stirs rumor pot originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 04:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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