Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices

#131

Post by sokoloff » Thu, Aug 27, 2015, 11:01 PM UTC

droopyEyelids wrote: post #52

sokoloff wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if everything you say up to the last clause is perfectly true, it doesn't follow that he blames them for the failure. He simply and objectively doesn't need them if the product they were skilled to do is a flop and has no future.

It's an interesting example of how objectification and anthropormorphism can be the inverse of each other. We treat the business like a human, assuming it 'blames' people. The business treats humans like objects, throwing them in the garbage when they are no longer of use.

The "he" in my text was intended to reference a human, Jeff Bezos, as the parent of my post did.

Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices

#132

Post by bduerst » Fri, Aug 28, 2015, 5:10 AM UTC

jon-wood wrote: post #113

bduerst wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon produces mobile apps for other platforms, and is shipping hardware like Alexa. If anything, these layoffs seem to correllate with some of the commentary in the recent NYT article about Amazon.

Theres a difference between making mobile Apps and making a mobile OS. Keeping people with those skills on to work on the Amazon Android app feels to me like hiring Linus Torvalds because you want to release a Linux version of your software.

Which would make perfect sense if they didn't can the hardware engineers too.

Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices

#133

Post by sea2summit » Fri, Aug 28, 2015, 7:34 AM UTC

dont_pm_me wrote: post #130

sea2summit wrote: post #46

The problem with the Fire Phone isn't the hardware, the hardware is great, the problem is Fire OS. No one wants a half baked Android fork and a walled garden. My wife purchased the Fire Phone during their last promotion, and within 15 minutes she was reflashing to CyanogenMod. The phone would have been successful if they had simply run stock Android, preloaded their own bloatware like Samsung does, and perhaps a dedi…

How did your wife flash to CM? I believe the Fire Phone bootloader is still locked, so I'm not really sure how that's possible.

She used KingRoot. Instructions here: https://goo.gl/ukUc1W

Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices

#134

Post by kbutler » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 2:06 AM UTC

droopyEyelids wrote: post #52

sokoloff wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if everything you say up to the last clause is perfectly true, it doesn't follow that he blames them for the failure. He simply and objectively doesn't need them if the product they were skilled to do is a flop and has no future.

It's an interesting example of how objectification and anthropormorphism can be the inverse of each other. We treat the business like a human, assuming it 'blames' people. The business treats humans like objects, throwing them in the garbage when they are no longer of use.

Laying someone off is not throwing them in the garbage. It's saying, "We don't have work for you here now." It's painful, and it can be damaging to self-esteem, but at worst, it's throwing them in the recycling...

Re: Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices

#135

Post by gojomo » Sat, Aug 29, 2015, 9:11 PM UTC

freyr wrote: post #87

gojomo wrote: post #78

My Amazon Fire TV Stick is quite nice: fairly snappy, very usable interface, downloadable apps, almost-perfect minimalist remote control. (One flaw: the 'home' button is too easy to hit by mistake.) Better in most respects than the Google ChromeCast. I hope Fire TV products survive and thrive through this reorg.

Interesting, my interface is extremely laggy and the video stutters. The apps and remote are nice though.

Mine was pre-ordered, so it's from an early batch. By any chance are you using an alternate to the bundled AC-USB adapter? (Maybe it's a voltage issue.)