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Amazon Reportedly Launching Smartphone This Year
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is working on a smartphone for release in the second half of the year. They're currently aiming to announce it by July and launch the end of September. One of the differentiating features of the phone is its capability to display 3-D images. "..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." However, it may not be just a gimmick for 3-D movies and TV shows: "Sources tell Re/code that one advantage of this display will supposedly be that the phone can be moved from right to left to navigate, so a user can interact with the interface with only one hand." The report's sources say Amazon has been demonstrating the phone for developers in San Francisco and Seattle, but they're likely to have difficulty luring developers away from established platforms.
3D has been met between a variation of "MEH!" and "meh" after the initial oohs and ahs wore off for theaters and consoles and TVs. It's a feature people take but don't care about.
What will help Amazon get into the game is if it's divorced from carriers and does better pricing on that front. Kinda like how a kindle can get (slow) internet connectivity elsewhere. If it can get people a smartphone for $30~ish a month voice and data. Then it will be cool and a game changer. Otherwise it's just another phone in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
one advantage of this display will supposedly be that the phone can be moved from right to left to navigate, so a user can interact with the interface with only one hand.
Well we all know what that means.
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in the slightest. It's like saying "In a movie theatre images are projected onto a screen, similar to the eye."
The added competition should at least drive down the retail price of the information for the NSA.
And can't poor Jeff get a little slice of the smartphone pie. I understand he has drones to build, and the butler in his third home only has a single assistant.
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The best use for delivery drones is not Amazon purchases. This doesn't happen often enough, it's vendor-specific and it's too concentrated around their warehouses. Compared to other usages, it's a drop in an ocean.
You need to target something that will be viable even in the smallest of towns:
1. medication, because pills are small and light enough. Ideal candidate for the first phase using very small, low-cost lightweight drones.
2. fast-food and restaurant deliveries, because if you remove drinks, it's medium-weight items at best (pizza, burgers, chicken, fries, etc). It can be faster and cheaper than driving, there's no stopping at red lights so there's less chances for the food to cool down. Just have the container insulated like the pizza delivery bags.
3. small groceries items, maybe put a weight and volume limit on the deliveries. How often do we have to get there to get that one or two item(s) that we need to complete a recipe or a meal? This drone would benefit from having a cooled container for the items.
Okay, totally off-topic for the thread, but on-topic as a reply to the parent post.
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Regarding this last statement:
they're likely to have difficulty luring developers away from established platforms.
Kindle is already built on top of Android, and Amazon has partnerships with Android developers already. It's also a time-proven platform that's becoming ever more insurmountable for anyone trying to get their own platform off the ground. (take Windows Phone 8, and Microsoft had a decade head start) With all that stated, why is TFA assuming that this new smartphone would have anything but Android as their backbone?
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1. medication, because pills are small and light enough. Ideal candidate for the first phase using very small, low-cost lightweight drones.
Huge liability risk if your drone crashes and an unintended person gets hold of the pills/medications.
You'll never see drone-delivery of medications in a heavy regulation / frequent litigation country. Especially not prescription medications.
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I'm pretty sure they track the pupil and/or the iris, not the retina.
This is not for id purposes nor is this a James Bond movie.
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