Amazon on Fire

Amazon entered the smartphone business yesterday, and made a big splash doing it. At an event in Seattle, the retail giant unveiled the Fire Phone, a high-end, 3-D smartphone. It is the first smartphone Amazon has produced on its own. "Can we build a better phone for our most engaged customers?" asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the event. "Can we build a better phone for Amazon Prime members? Well, I'm excited to tell you that the answer is yes." Here's what all the hype is about:

• Display: The Fire Phone has a 3-D, 4.7-inch high-definition display. It uses infrared lights and cameras mounted on the phone's surface to track a user's head movements and render images accordingly.
• Camera: The Fire Phone has a lightning-fast quad-core 2.2 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, and a 13 Megapixel camera. The camera comes with an optical image-stabilization feature, letting the shutter stay open four-times longer than most cameras to counteract hand tremors when taking photos. A special button on the side launches the camera and takes photos - rather than having to go into the phone to open the camera feature.
• Firefly: Amazon's "Firefly" feature uses the camera to recognize physical objects - books, video games, food, household products, and other items - and gives you the option to buy all that stuff instantly on Amazon. Firefly can also listen to songs a la Shazam. Like with the camera, there's also a dedicated Firefly button on the side of the Fire Phone.
• Media: Media consumption, unsurprisingly for an Amazon devce, is the Fire Phone's focal point. The second screen feature can fling videos to Amazon's Fire TV or any Mirrorcast-enabled device. An "X-ray" feature provides details about what you're watching, and Amazon's "ASAP" tool uses predictive software to caching videos it thinks you will watch - and make them immediately available for streaming. Amazon said competitors will be included in those tools as well, including Netflix, HBOGo, and ESPN.
• Other stuff: Amazon's Mayday customer service feature, already in use on tablets, will also be available on the Fire Phone. It includes 24/7 access to tech support in 15 seconds or less. Amazon's smartphone also features dual stereo speakers, with premium earbuds included. It includes aluminum buttons and steel connectors. The Fire Phone will cost $199 with a two-year contract, available exclusively on AT&T's network for the time being. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon's website, and it will begin shipping on July 25. The phone will also come with a year of Amazon Prime included for both new and existing members, as a limited time offer.

Beat that, iOS and Android-based phones.