The Bite Magazine - Issue 11

237 / 302

Amazon Fire Smartphone
It seems that Amazon is constantly
proving that they are truly hot on the
heels of all the major smartphone and
tablet companies with new and interesting
technologies. Since introducing Kindle
several years ago, the reading tablet that
revolutionised the way we read books,
their products keeps on getting better
and better. Now, they have introduced
Fire, the very first smartphone designed
by the electronics brand, available only on
O2 Refresh.This particular smartphone is
unlike any other and gives Fire customers a
full year of Amazon Prime membership for
a limited time until 31st December 2014
as well as free unlimited cloud storage for
photos taken on Fire and live video tech
support with Mayday. It is also the only
smartphone with Dynamic Perspective
and Firefly, two new breakthrough
technologies that allows you to see and
interact with the world through a whole
new lens. Dynamic Perspective uses a new
sensor system to respond to the way you
hold, view and move Fire which enables
experiences that are not possible on
other smartphones while Firefly quickly
recognises things in the real world such as
web and email addresses, phone numbers,
QR and barcodes, text and translation,
artwork, movies and music, allowing you
to take action in seconds.
With sophisticated technologies such as
four ultra-low power specialised cameras
and four infrared LEDS built into the front
face of Fire, and a new high-performing
and power-efficient graphics, Dynamic
Perspective provides several very
interesting features. Using one-handed
gestures, the Fire smartphone allows
users to auto-scroll, tilt, swivel and peek
for quicker, easier navigation and provides
a better media and entertainment
experience. For example using auto-scroll,
customers can read a long web page or a
book in Kindle Reader without ever having
to touch the screen. It also enables a new
class of apps and games that are more
immersive and makes it quicker and easier
for the user to access information, such
as the Met Office app which allows you to
see the percentage chance of precipitation
and UV information associated with the
forecast. Carousel allows you to stay
productive with real-time updates and take
action right from the home screen such
as triaging emails, finding recent photos,
accessing most visited websites, returning
missed calls and viewing appointments.
If you happen to be a developer, you can
customise the contents of your dynamic
app and see how it responds to user
actions.
Firefly illuminates your world by combining
Amazon’s deep catalogue of physical
and digital content with multiple image,
text and audio recognition technologies
including artwork, movies, TV episodes,
songs, products and product barcodes. By
simply pressing and holding the dedicated
Firefly button, users will discover helpful
information and take action in seconds.
With Mayday now available over 3G and
4G, users of the Fire smartphone can use
this feature to access an Amazon expert
who will appear via live video to co-pilot
you through any feature on the device.
They’ll be able to draw on the screen,
talk you through how to do a task, or
simply do it for you. Mayday is available
24/7, 365 days a year and is totally
free. ASAP (Advanced Streaming and
Prediction) cleverly predicts which movies
and TV episodes you’ll want to watch
and prepares them for instant playback
before you even hit play while Second
Screen lets you fling TV shows and movies
from Fire phone to your TV. By turning
your TV into the primary screen, this frees
up your Fire phone to provide playback
controls and a customised display for
X-Ray without leaving the TV show or
movie you’re watching. Second Screen is
available for Fire TV and will be coming
soon to PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and
recent Samsung TVs. Users will also have
free unlimited cloud storage of photos
with Fire that automatically backs up
wirelessly and is available across Amazon
devices and Cloud Drive apps so you have
access anywhere and anytime.
The Fire smartphone is equipped with a
quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 2.2 Ghz
processor and 3GB RAM for excellent
fluidity and image rendering; 4.7-inch HD
display with an ambient light sensor and
Dynamic Image Contrast that delivers
better outdoor viewing; dual stereo
speakers with Dolby Digital Plus for virtual
surround sound experience and advanced
imaging system with 13MP rear-facing
camera with backside illumination, LED
flash, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and
high dynamic range (HDR) capabilities for
beautiful crisp photos, even in low-light
conditions. It also has a 2.1MP front-facing
camera, with both front and rear-facing
cameras featuring Best Shot that allows
the user to pick the optimal photo from
three options captured per shot, and
records smooth 1080p HD videos.
Amazon Fire Phone is available now on
32G or 64G exclusively on 02.
bite gadgets
Images courtesy of Amazon