Amazon's Smartphone is here. $199 to start, with 2 yr plan AND free year of Prime (extra year for Prime members). Updated and re-edited for clarity 7/2/14

LAUNCH EVENT time 10:30am PDT, 1:30pm EDT

FIRE PHONE is now available for pre-order.

Release date: July 25, 2014
  Limited time offer - "Includes a full year of Amazon Prime" (normally $99)
If you aren't a Prime member, you'll get a full year of Prime with Fire phone. If you already have Prime, we'll extend your membership for a full year."

It starts at $199 for 32 GB, $299 for 64 GB, with a 2-year monthly data plan with AT&T.
  Essentially then, the phone with 32G is $99 after saving on $99 Prime, with 2 yrs of a monthly data plan.

The 3D-simulation on Amazon's product-page image is pretty nifty.  Am not placing it here, as eInk Kindle subscribers to the Kindle Edition of the blog can't view video. :-)  Thanks again to the subscribers for continued support of the blog.


Content seen during launch is below - edited after-the-fact for clarity (and to fix typos galore)

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REFRESH the web page to see any additional updates as they occur today, which will be shown at the top instead.

Will just be taking notes here and updating when I see something unusual.  My earlier article on the rather heavily "rumored" smartphone had a lot of details that will likely be were confirmed, for the most part, today.

While the 3D aspects should be novel and fun for awhile, I was looking forward to a good plan but especially since it's been said to be exclusive to AT&T (which seemed a hint they may have worked out a good deal for customers and Amazon with AT&T to get that exclusive).  The limited-time offer of 1 yr of free Prime is probably what makes it a better deal than most, as it makes the cost of a new, very high-tech smartphone with advanced features only $99 if you get a 2-year monthly data plan with AT&T.


The launch started out with the usual lists of previous goals and accomplishments, and Amazon will then take invited customer-applicants for this event (said to be chosen via a random drawing) and the usual media to a place where they can get hands-on access.

A rumor I hadn't heard earlier
From BostInno

' In addition to the five total front cameras, the back camera is said to have optical character recognition that can capture and convert text.
  In other words, instead of stuffing all those business cards into your pockets at your next networking event, you'll be able to snap up a photo of the card and have all the information automatically compiled into your contacts. '

I had no idea this morning whether that was true or not, but that's very useful.  There are Android and iOS apps that have been able to, for some time, take a picture of a sign with text in another language and translate it.
  Turns out that the Fire Phone can read an image to get, say, a phone number but, not only that, it can realize that a graphic element confused it and that the area code is not a valid one and then can fetch the information to correct it).


Jeff Bezos mentioned that 60,000+ people applied to view the launch in Seattle in person, and Amazon whittled that down to 300.

Prime apparently has "tens of millions" of subscribers -- and we know that Prime will be the big factor here, as we've seen with video and music features (along with Kindle book loans and 2-day free shipping) on millions of items.  As you saw in a previous blog entry here, the original 5,000 Kindle books in the Prime Library for free lending of one-book per calendar month has grown to over 500,000.

A sample previous prediction by experts when the first Kindle launched was mentioned -- the investing site Motley Fool said it would be good "for kindling."

Opening PR reminded us that Foresee and YouGov branding charts both list Amazon as No. 1 in customer service.


The Fire Phone with FIREFLY scanning
Claims on slides shown, for the most part:  (I'll double space these after editing, and also highlight a few aspects that were more interesting to me, for easier reading.)

. Rubberized frame, Gorilla Glass, aluminum buttons.

. Premium materials, scratch resistant

. 4.7 inch IPS LCD HD display

. Quad core 2.2 Ghz processor, Adreno 330 graphics processor, and 2 GB of RAM.

. "Beautiful, comfortable, durable"

. Injection-molded steel connectors

. Focus on making it Better than usual for outdoor viewing

. Great imaging hardware
      with 13 MP rear-facing camera, f/2 5-element lens, optical image stabilization

. Slide of Fire Phone vs iPhone 5s and Samsung F5
      (They wouldn't be showing one where the Fire Phone didn't look better, of course)

. "Don't miss the shot" -- instant fast access to camera from

. Free Unlimited Photo Storage

. Dual stereo speakers (Stereo audio in Landscape), Virtual surround sound, Dolby Digital Plus

. Free Mayday Help/Support feature -- (video support by customer reps and AT&T reps within 15 seconds when you need help) is included.  You see the rep, who does not see you but you can hear each other, and the reps can not only show you how to do something, they can do it for you.)

. Watch material on HDTV, 2nd screen, Miracast, plus Xray for movies and tv

. Flat cables, earphones included

. Netflix, HBO Go, ESPN, Youtube, and Showtime apps are included and ready to go.

. includes of course the new Prime Music feature (free for members) - over 1 million songs
      with unlimited free streaming.

. More than a few Music apps and services

. "Semantic Boosting" helps to get the phone number right by eliminating invalid numbers.

. Firefly scanning feature "scrapes" the image for relevant info [via optical character recognition], compressing a large image file to a smaller one with only small bits of info.  That helps the phone send the info to its cloud service to process the image and get appropriate info or answers quickly.

. Reminder about the X-ray feature, now using Firefly also.  As with tablets, if it recognizes the show, it pulls up info on the actors, specific episode, and scene via Amazon's IMDB database.  I expect this works with Amazon Prime but not with Netflix and Hulu Plus etc., as they control the stream with Prime video.  HOWEVER, the Firefly scanning feature has had a lot of training by Amazon and itself can "recognize" movies, TV episodes, music, and get info for X-Ray.  I've added Amazon's description of Firefly functions at the bottom of this post, as it is a very impressive feature, activated by the press of a physical button on the phone.

. Firefly recognizes a hundred million different items in real-world situations.

. The image changes as you move your phone (or head) and perspective.

. A MAP application was shown next, in 3D

. They zoomed into the Empire State Building image, and it's said this looks a lot better than previous attempts at 3D on similar devices

. The 3D couldn't exactly be experienced by our looking at the launch-event slides over the web with our normal devices.

. Various web sites are very impressed with the 3D implementation.  Most writers I read were skeptical about it based on previous attempts by other companies.

. In the web browsing -- "auto scroll" - you can scroll by tilting the phone (I'm not sure I'd want that, but they pointed out that can be turned off when wanted.

. You can pin other apps to the app grid.  They have the Carousel with latest apps accessed at the top.

. Get in and out of apps with widgets (shown on slide) without having to load up a full app

. Music app.  As with the tablets, we can see the lyrics synchronized (highlighting current line) with songs for which they received the rights for that.
      Song info is in one panel - lyrics in a panel to the right.

. Games: You can tilt the phone to look at different perspectives in a game.

. "Dynamic Perspective" - They started working on this 4 years ago and had prototypes working in the first week.

. The phone has a wider range of view for the front camera to cover the area needed for tracking head movement and whatever else needed to make the 3D simulation work well.

. At least two of the Fire Phone's four corner cameras and center camera can find your eyes, creating stereovision.

. To have it work in the dark, they added infrared lights, one in each camera.

. Dynamic Perspective sensor system -- "uses four ultra-low power specialized cameras -- the smallest globally shuttered cameras in existence -- plus four infrared LEDs for invisible illumination, real-time computer vision algorithms, and a custom graphics engine rendering at 60 fps" [frames per second]."

. They used "millions of images from thousands of faces from all around the world" while testing this.

. While trying to find the user's head and eyes for perspective-use, the cameras -could- during development be fooled by another head that happened to be in the picture (as in an image on a t-shirt).  They say they fixed the usual problems with seeing multiple-faces in that case.

. Developers can develop 3D apps for viewing homes while shopping, etc.

. You can silence your ringer for 3 hours.  After that, it turns back on.
      This would help me since I forget to turn it back on and then can't use a landline to call my cellphone to find out where it is :-)

. Price: $199 for 32 GB phone, with a 2 year monthly data plan, and includes a limited-time offer of a free one-year Prime membership, $299 for 64 GB phone w/ 2 yr contract and same Prime deal.

Addendum: More about Firefly and what it does (from product page)
  You just press the physical button on the side of the Fire Phone to "take action on"

' Phone numbers, web, and email addresses
Firefly identifies printed text on posters, magazines, and business cards -- make calls, save new contacts, send emails, and visit websites without typing long addresses.

Movies & TV
Firefly recognizes over 240,000 movies and TV episodes, and 160 live TV channels.  Firefly uses X-Ray, powered by IMDb, to show information on actors, plot details, and related content -- add titles to your Watchlist or download to watch later.

Music
Firefly recognizes songs so you can access artist information, play related songs, download albums direct to your Fire phone, or add them to your Wish List to purchase later on.  With Firefly-enabled apps like iHeartRadio and StubHub, you can create radio stations based on an identified artist, or even find tickets for their next show.

Over 70 million products
Recognize household items, books, DVDs, CDs, video games, and more.  Access product details, add items to your Wish List, or order on Amazon straight from your Fire phone. '

Amazon's 3D FIRE PHONE is now available for pre-order here
Release date: July 25, 2014


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Amazon (Kindle?) 3D Smartphone launch June 18? Preview and early reports indicate it is.

The image is from BGR, from an article published in May, and being cited by other tech sites such as Geekwire reporting yesterday on Amazon's new TV and Web ad announcing the launch of something on June 18th in Seattle and inviting customers, developers and journalists to request invites to the event.

  Here's the video ad (plus reminder to subscribers to the Kindle-Edition of this blog that e-Ink devices don't do video) -- it's viewable at Youtube and is mainly a tease as it doesn't show the device but it does show the users' head movements, which match what is described by BGR in May in connection with a rumored 3D phone that doesn't require eyeglasses.  It's said to use 6 cameras, four of them low-power infrared sensors to track head movements to produce viewing of 3D-like images.  Add that -- in addition to the unique features involved -- pricing is expected to be attractive and likely to "turn heads" in several ways.

  Geekwire references an April 11, 2014 article in the Wall Street Journal (not visible to non-subscribers, but Marketwatch carries a scaled-down version.  The WSJ article includes the following:

' The retailer has been demonstrating versions of the handset to developers in San Francisco and its hometown Seattle in recent weeks, these people said.  People briefed on the company’s plans have been told that Amazon aims to announce the phone by the end of June and begin shipping phones by the end of September, ahead of the holiday shopping season...They said the phone would employ retina-tracking technology embedded in four front-facing cameras, or sensors, to make some images appear to be 3-D, similar to a hologram, the people said. '

Patents filings from 2008 and 2010 - what they show
Geekwire had another article yesterday on patents filed by Amazon (one for an invention by Jeff Bezos)

' What the patent filings show — at a high level — is a phone capable of detecting hand gestures, similar to the Xbox Kinect, along with the ability to track eye movement.  By tracking a user’s eye movement, the interface is able to shift, so the user can view it easily from any angle, which may also make typing on a touchscreen more accurate.
  . . .
Other features of the phone that have been reported include a 4.7-inch display, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, 2GB of RAM, and a potential plan to offset costs, called Prime Data, which would give users free access to content from certain websites and services, similar to AT&T’s “Sponsored Data” initiatives. '

  In an earlier BGR article, they reference KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has the best reputation for accuracy with Apple products and was definitely far and away the most accurate for Amazon's Yr 2012 line.

' In terms of specs, Kuo says the Amazon phone will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, a 4.7-inch display with a pixel density of between 300 and 320 ppi, a plastic housing, a 13-megapixel main camera supplied by Sony, secondary cameras supplied by Primax, and a battery sized between 2,000 and 2,400 mAh.
  BGR has independently confirmed some but not all of those specs. '

Prime Data Plan?
  BGR adds (back in April) that Amazon's "secret weapon" would likely be a Prime Data plan.

' BGR has learned from multiple trusted sources that Amazon is planning to offer a unique wireless data plan alongside its first smartphone, which is set to launch in the coming months.

  The plan is tentatively named "Prime Data," and it will be positioned as one of several key selling points for the phone. '

 "More than one trusted source" mentioned the possibility of something with AT&T similar to or based on its "Sponsored Data" product, which "allows companies to foot the bill for data traffic used by specific apps and services on customers’ devices.  Any cellular data consumed while using apps covered by the program does not apply toward a subscriber’s monthly data cap.

  "With that in mind, sources who spoke with BGR believe Amazon may be planning to offer smartphone buyers free access to its various Prime-branded digital services."

 "Recent reports suggest the company will soon push further into the streaming music market with a new product that competes with the likes of Spotify and iTunes Radio.

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Kindle tips: The Big Deal - Over 500 Kindle books at up to 85% off - is back thru' March 30. Appstore birthday: Fourteen Kindle Fire and Android apps Free TODAY & TOMORROW (3/21-22), worth up $50. Also, 50% off top-brand SD/SDHC memory cards currently. Is Amazon readying a smartphone with 6 cameras?

Amazon's The Big Deal feature headline isn't super clear in the image, but that package is back for the rest of March and promises
  "Up to 85% off on more than 500 Kindle Books."

This special feature page is good through March 30, and carries the usual disclaimer re varying selection and pricing of books offered outside the U.S.

  The Big Deal page is organized this time by a more limited set of categories or genres than usual:

  . Biography & Memoir Deals
  . Science Fiction & Fantasy Deals
  . Teen Book Deals
  . Religion & Spirituality Deals
  . Children's Books

On the right of the page is a list of the Top 10 Best Selers and an option to "See all Best Sellers in The Big Deal"
  This is the top 100 out of the 500 offered.

' These lists, updated hourly, contain bestselling items. Here you can discover the best The Big Deal in Amazon Best Sellers ... For non-U.S. customers, Kindle content availability and pricing will vary. '

The bottom of the page is a scrolling list of over 500 books, one by one, with a default sort of "New and Popular" and alternate sorts:
  16 per page, if you choose (inside the gray strip bar above the list) the Orange grid for "Detail"
      OR
  60 per page, if you choose the 4-cell icon for "Image" which will show mainly book covers and basic info.

  Shortcut if you type it: bit.ly/thebigdeal-032114



Amazon's Appstore celebrates its 3rd birthday with free apps TODAY and Tomorrow (3/21-22, 2014)
According to INTOMOBILE's Ian Kersey, Amazon is "giving away fourteen hit titles today and tomorrow, which would normally run you $50 to purchase..." The listing:

Polaris Office ($12.99)
Runtastic PRO GPS Running, Walking & Fitness Tracker ($4.99)
Swype Keyboard ($3.99)
mSecure – Password Manager and Secure Digital Wallet ($9.99)
PrintHand Mobile Print Premium ($12.95)
Worms 2: Armageddon ($0.99)
Worms 2: Armageddon (Kindle Tablet Edition) ($0.99)
King of Math Junior ($1.99)
Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots ($0.99)
Dr. Panda’s Airport ($1.99)
MONOPOLY ($4.99)
Sketchbook Pro ($4.99)
Ski Safari: Adventure Time ($0.99)
SpinArt ($1.99)
Battle Maiden Yuko Runner ($10.00)

Some of you will have less Kindle Fire or pure-Android tablet storage than others.  For Kindle Fire users, getting any or all of these at Amazon's web page, after more easily perusing the features and reviews, will put them in your Amazon Cloud and you can download and install, on your device, only what you want or need when you're ready, without worrying about taking too much of the storage space at one time.

  When ready, you'd just choose 'Cloud' on your tablet's Apps "Cloud" top-bar choice and click on one to get it.

This special ends Saturday night, March 22. Thanks to Intomobile for the tip.


For photo buffs and snapshooters: Amazon's current 50% off deal on SD and SDHC memory cards
These are primarily name brand memory cards.


A prediction to monitor, re Amazon's coming smartphone
In Sept., 2011, while the rest of the tech world was saying Amazon would not be releasing new eInk eReader now that tablets were the main focus, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, often cited by AppleInsider, predicted Amazon would release TWO eInk tablets.  This was pooh-pooh'd by most watchers but he was right, including the smallest details.  So his predictions for Amazon's smartphone get more serious attention. Excerpts:

'.. Will feature mid- to high-range specs, including a Qualcomm Snapgragon 801 processor, a 4.7-inch display with 300-320 pixels-per-inch (ppi) and a 2,000-2,400 mAh battery. The most interesting thing that Kuo suggests about Amazon’s smartphone is not the computing hardware, but rather, its cameras.
...
... Amazon will cram a 13-megapixel main camera sensor made by Sony -- with five other cameras. While one camera will be front-facing for video chats, Kuo said "the other four cameras will be used for gesture control, allowing users to operate the smartphone without touching the touch panel.”
...
... Last year, reports said that Amazon was looking at a glasses-free 3D interface for a Kindle phone. The additional cameras might allow for interaction with hologram-like 3D images to bring a whole new dimension to mobile gaming...
...
... Might Amazon offer Prime members some other incentive for buying its phone to justify the higher price?..."
'

More details for those intrigued are at Thomas Halleck's article for International Business Times.



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-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!