Amazon has been a pioneer in a number of technologies such as the e-commerce platform and the e-book reader or Kindle. This time too, the company has launched a smartphone, the Amazon Fire, one of its kinds as the phone offers a dynamic perspective which is more than showing off things in 3D. The phone will be made available in retail stores and you can also buy this mobile phone online very soon.
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| Amazon Fire |
The phone’s image is automatically adjustable because of 4 infrared cameras pointed towards your face that use head rays emanated from your body for judging whether you are viewing the screen up front, your closeness to the screen and the angle at which you are viewing. With the data collected, the phone adjusts the images displayed on the phone accordingly. Therefore, you will be able to see things clearly and in depth, bring things to foreground, zoom in to see better, browse through, books, websites and menus and play games by tilting the phone forth and back and down and up when you are looking at it. The feature, “Firefly” definitely heightens your sense of reality by converting objects such as phone numbers, CDs, movies, books and items of grocery into your phone so that you may take some action. Amazon being a shopping website primarily has paid close heed price comparison on the phone. You can flash your cell phone at any aisle in a departmental store to find a price comparison. Also, the phone is capable of recognizing close to 100 million items. Also, by linking your credit card to this facility, you will be able to buy the item with a few taps.
The 3D effect looks very good on the phone, at least at first look. Amazon has included a number of lock screen such as ruins of a pyramid, a few hot air balloons which are in a jungle setting and much more. By simply swivelling the phone, you can make the images appear like they are deep by an inch or two which will make you look beyond the foreground of the images only. It might seem to be only a superficial gimmick but it has its uses. For example, Amazon has shown how this feature can be used by Zillow, the real estate website for example. Once you have zoomed into an interior’s photograph, the app would allow you to switch perspective of what you want to see in the rooms inside. Even though slightly grainy, the image showed what it could be used for, even without a full blown 3D effect. Games on the phone also used the tool to a good extent. One of the games allows you to increase and decrease the size of the characters based on a nod from your head or keeping the phone upright or flat. A game called Tofu Fry uses 3D perspective at the gaming level. It is much similar to Angry Birds though but the 3D effect is a first time on a game.
Another very good thing is that all this is done with respect to your face. Therefore, you can practice all this by being upside down on your bed or lying down on it. The games would be handled in the exact same way as you have the phone positioned to your face. However, the feature needs some improvement when it comes to controlling menus and scrolling through tests. Hidden menus are brought on screen by bringing in side swivels quickly. For example, by swivelling the music screen to the left, you could bring up the panel which display lyrics of songs from the right panel. Also, when you swivel on the 2nd screen of TV viewing application, the X-Ray was obtained between character images when these were in their street clothes and costume. Yelp listing of local restaurants can be accessed by quickly swivelling the maps applications. When you are browsing through a website then tilting the handset away from your face would make the words move upwards. The more you tilt, faster is the movement of words.
However, these highly sensitive functions of the phone can make anyone uneasy because of the way one would have to keep his or her head steady otherwise accidental actions may be taken. For example, when you are viewing your favourite products using the Amazon firefly, you may alter the size of the image simply by a bob of your head. The phone is well built and offers other features. The phone has a weight without feeling heavy. The buttons which activate firefly or the camera are comfortable and look minimalistic. The screen size if 4.7 inches and has an aspect ratio of 16:9 so that the phone can be held and controlled with one hand. Also, for stereo sounds, speakers have been positioned on the bottom and top especially when you are holding it sideways.
The features packed in this smartphone are quite similar to those in the Kindle Fire Tablet like the live help Mayday function. The tool is certainly essential if you want to enjoy all benefits offered through an Amazon Prime membership that costs $99 per year such as listening to music, video watching and book reading. Also, the Prime is available for free for the first year. The dynamic perspective aspect of the phone certainly revolutionizes the smartphone industry and brings up a model that can be copied by a lot of companies and hence a new trend shall be set in the industry.
Prior to the launch even, Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO had sent guests in attendance a copy of Mr Pine’s Purple House, his favourite kids’ book which has the moral that being different is good sometimes. The phone certainly draws a parallel to the purple house that has tofu sculptures hanging from hot air balloons. A lot of people may be interested in such a phone and it is only logical to be. The phone is certainly a good match for the Samsung and Apple products available in the market. The phone will soon be made available in market and now you can buy mobile phones online.
