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Amazon Fire Phone

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Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#131

Post by [deleted] »

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #88
frik wrote: 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 yo…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#132

Post by drcode »

evilduck wrote: post #117
drcode wrote: 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…

I'm taking the opposite stance, this is a stupid gimmick until proven otherwise. Scrolling with my finger can happen on the very edge of the screen or area of interaction and it's easy to move out of viewing obstruction. Tilt-based interaction has existed for years on iOS and Android using the accelerometers. It's not a responsiveness or tracking issue, it's that interacting with screens at oblique angles is annoying…

> this is a stupid gimmick until proven otherwise

I actually agree with you, I'm just saying "Hold on guys, a rational argument can at least be made that this isn't just a stupid gimmick"

...but we have to try the device to know for sure...

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#133

Post by Zelphyr »

evilduck wrote: post #117
drcode wrote: 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…

I'm taking the opposite stance, this is a stupid gimmick until proven otherwise. Scrolling with my finger can happen on the very edge of the screen or area of interaction and it's easy to move out of viewing obstruction. Tilt-based interaction has existed for years on iOS and Android using the accelerometers. It's not a responsiveness or tracking issue, it's that interacting with screens at oblique angles is annoying…

> this is a stupid gimmick until proven otherwise

Thus my objections to Fire Phone. It seems like a lot of gimmicks and little actual solving of real problems.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#134

Post by ctdonath »

ewoodrich wrote: post #23
[deleted] wrote: post #6

[deleted]

How can it be an "iPhone clone", when its marquee feature is something the iPhone lacks (head tracking hardware)?

At this point, the head tracking is a gimmick. It's not something people chose or switch ecosystems for. Might attract truly new smartphone users, but isn't a "killer feature". Apple already uses 6D accelerometer applicable to much of what the Fire's head tracker will be used for.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#136

Post by drcode »

rayiner wrote: post #111
drcode wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Do you keep your finger on your phone while reading a page? I flick, read, flick, read, etc.

Unfortunately the finger constantly gets in the way so I have to move it.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#137

Post by azinman2 »

mrcwinn wrote: post #107
drcode wrote: 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…

Everyone's experience is different I guess, but I have never once in my life found myself trying to peer around my own finger. Touching the screen to control where I want information to move is intuitive and precise. Tilting a screen is, for me, very counterintuitive and imprecise. And despite Sergey Brin claiming it's emasculating to touch a screen, I still find the experience a bit magical. Really I don't see the F…

Exactly. I've never felt like it was a fundamental issue because I can always move my finger. My biggest concern is this will be the new phone rotation that I always turn off because as soon as I want to read in bed it'll start to scroll constantly. Maybe they've figured this out but knowing the correct orientation plane to start, figuring out that I'm simply moving myself around or temporarily putting the phone down and I don't want it to scroll, or any of the many other similar scenarios seem very problematic to me.

That said firefly and the dynamic perspective looks very cool. Not sure how often I'll want to scan the world around me but maybe I'm wrong. The DP seems more like the thing that would affect everyday more radically. Hopefully it doesn't get gimmicky and annoying and instead seems like what it should have always been like all along.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#138

Post by jisaacks »

nostromo wrote: post #120

The market positioning here seems very un-Amazon. "Your margin is my opportunity" is probably my favorite Bezosism. Given that perspective and Apple's very cushy margins, I expected Amazon not to approach the market with an expensive phone packed with new features, but to approach the market from the bottom, with a good phone that is free or nearly free. The problem, of course, is that Google seems to have that segme…

> Searching via photos is awesome, but the only use case it seems well suited for is shopping.

If I was bitten by a snake, spider, etc. I'd love to be able to snap a picture to quickly identify it and know whether or not to rush to the ER.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#139

Post by Holbein »

Both the object detection and that 3D tracking seems to be focused on consumption. Consume more movies, more music, more books, more apps!

How sad. A phone is the most intimate piece of technology we have, and all Amazon can think about making it a machine of consumption.

I wish they would have focused more enabling people to create things. You know, help them be active. Help change the world.

There's just a slight hint here that Amazon considers its users more like mindless money-spending media consuming drones.

A new device very rarely push the human race forward. The Kindle Phone is clearly no such device.

Re: Amazon Fire Phone

#140

Post by terrywilcox »

drcode wrote: post #86
__david__ wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

I have an opposable thumb, so I just move my thumb off the screen when it's in the way.

It's like when I'm holding onto something; I just move my thumb off to let go.

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