Amazon All But Gives Away Its Long-Rumored 3D Smartphone in Teaser
It looks like Amazon is finally ready to release its long-rumored smartphone. The company announced a "launch event" for June 18 in Seattle, and by the looks of its promo video, it's going to be a smartphone with some kind of 3D screen. Here are all the other details and rumors that are likely to be confirmed in two weeks.
Amazon's launch event will be hosted by the company's founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos. The event was announced by Amazon via Twitter, and the tweet included a YouTube teaser video that gives some of the many rumors about the possible smartphone much more credence.
From the video, we can tell it's clearly a hand-held device -- so the launch event won't be about another delivery drone or TV attachment. The Amazon invite page for the event also shows this photo, which looks a lot like the corner of a smartphone or tablet, minus the rear camera.
More intriguing evidence in the video: One woman in the video comments "it moved with me," and you can clearly see people shifting their heads back and forth, focused on whatever is in their hands. This suggests that the rumor — which is at least a year old now — that Amazon's smartphone will have 3D screen technology (of some variation) is probably true. How "3D" it will be is still up for debate, but the people in the video aren't wearing glasses, so we know it won't require those.
After that, we can't really confirm much from the Amazon teaser — which is likely exactly what Amazon wants. But there have been some well-sourced rumors from major outlets that can perhaps give us a clue about other details of Amazon's possible impending smartphone.
For one, The Wall Street Journal reported over a year ago that Amazon was working on a 3D smartphone (and in the same report, the WSJ correctly called the set-top box that would become Fire TV this year). "People familiar with the plans" told the WSJ Amazon's smartphone would have a Qualcomm chip providing 4G LTE, and that Amazon would use user data from apps, downloads, and phone calls to offer shopping recommendations (this was a month before Snowden leaked NSA documents, and the world was a different place then, so we'll see exactly what privacy options Amazon will be offering post-NSA leaks after the unveiling).
Another purported leak to BGR, this time from just a couple months ago, revealed that there will probably be a rear camera "thought to feature a resolution of 13 megapixels", along with a front-facing camera for video chats and Amazon's Mayday 24/7 customer service, which the company unveiled in the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX late last year.
But what's most interesting from BGR's leak is that their "multiple trusted sources" said the device will have four additional front-facing cameras that will work with other sensors to create the phone's 3D effect: one low-powered infrared camera on each corner to track the position of users' eyes and face. This, along with Amazon's software, will allow for real-time adjustments to the visuals on the screen to make them pop.
However, BGR also noted that the screen resolution will likely be 720p and that the rest of the phone's specs are going to be not exactly top-of-the-line.
But 3D ‚ especially reactive 3D that doesn't make you feel sea-sick like Apple's parallax effect did — on a smartphone? Without glasses? Sign me up.
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