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Amazon Fire Phone

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Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#82
post #28

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

The "Fire OS" has been around for a couple of years now, previously powering Kindle Fire devices.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#83
post #59

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 b…

Hopefully there is more to it than just using the cameras like a gyroscope. Because tilt to scrolling with just rotational information is already very possible.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#84
post #59

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 b…

> 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!

Unless I'm wearing mittens, it's never been a problem in ~6 years of smartphone use.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#85
post #69

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 bac…

Talk about losing your place -- I just want a phone that I can hand to someone when I'm showing a picture, and not have it exit the app or something when they inevitably touch the screen. Would be nice to have a touch screen lock gesture, which keeps the current app active and displayed.

Oh, and the 3D -- is that really a 3D screen, or does it just change the screen when you move the phone, based on the position of your face relative to the front camera?

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#86
post #59

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 b…

That doesn't really seem compelling to me. I've never felt the problem of having my finger in the way while scrolling, and I'm pretty dubious of tilt scrolling. I'll reserve final judgement until I've had my hands on the phone or seen other people's hands on reviews, but right now this really seems like a solution in search of a problem.

My hypothesis is that adding this feature to a 4.7 inch device has the potential to make the user experience equivalent to maybe a 6.7 inch device, because a finger covers up the equivalent of 2 inches worth of screen real-estate.

Wouldn't you like a 6.7 inch phone that only takes 4.7 inches of space in your pocket?

(That said, only time will tell if I am right)

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#87
post #55
post #7

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

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.

The 'superior app store' note applies equally to proper Android (the non-Amazon version) users as well. Amazon App Store users can't even download Google Chrome or Firefox, let alone the hundreds of thousands of other apps and games that are available to non-Amazon folks.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#88
post #62

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?

That exists on certain of their products already and they marketed the hell out of it, so it's an interesting reflection on said marketing that you're asking this question. Nothing against you, mind, just interesting about the messaging. (I actually forgot it was called Mayday, so the "Mayday" bullet point was confusing to me.)

Although I've never used it, Mayday is a human being with a camera and they can control your device. I first assumed that they saw you, as well, which made me sad about the horrors they'd be inflicting upon poor contractors, but I'm told they cannot see you. I still don't know.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

Aka the MitM browser.

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fir...

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#90
post #69

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 bac…

Amazon has consistently impressed me with their customer service, so Mayday struck me as a pretty awesome feature:

"Simply hit the Mayday button in quick actions and an Amazon expert will appear to help you via live video."

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