14 DAY TRIAL // Amazon has been long said to plan on bringing to the market its own smartphone, and some more info on what the device will have to offer to its users has emerged online today.
Previous reports on the device suggested that it would hit shelves with four low-power infrared cameras on the front and that it would combine these with sensors and software in order to provide users with a new, different experience when compared to other smartphones out there.
A new BGR article claims that said sensors and cameras will work together to provide users with a new way to navigate apps and menus, while also delivering various 3D effects on the device.
Apparently, said effects will be present on some applications coming from Amazon itself, as well as in third-party applications, and will also be accompanied by unique gesture controls.
Said BGR report claims that users will be able to view additional info on the screen when tilting the device in a specific direction or another while it is in use.
Thus, users will be able to operate phones with larger screens with only one hand easily, and the rumored 4.7-inch flagship device from the company is one of them, it seems.
One example of how this works involves the email and calendar applications on the smartphone, which will have the icons displayed with no labels. However, as soon as the user tilts the phone, these labels will appear, informing users on specific functions that each of them has.
When tilting the phone after searching for a restaurant in the maps application, Yelp ratings will emerge on the screen, on top of the results that have been already offered.
The same tilt gesture can also be used in the Amazon video store and will display IMDb ratings on top of movie thumbnails.
Furthermore, it seems that Amazon might have created the device without the traditional buttons on the screen and that users will be able to navigate simply by tilting the device right or left.
For example, tiling the phone when creating a new message will open the camera roll, which will allow users to easily insert an image in their message.
There are also several zero-touch controls that will be included in the phone, also triggered by tilt gestures, such as scrolling up and down on a web page or book by tilting the phone up or down.
On top of that, the handset is said to arrive on shelves with optical character recognition (OCR) and another technology that will enable it to transform text from a photo into a note when snapping images of signs or other objects with printed text on them.
The software should also be able to attach the information from a business card to a new contact entry, to translate from a foreign language into English, and the like.
Apparently, Amazon is gearing up for the unveiling of this device later this spring, though no specific release date for it has been provided as of now. Stay tuned for more on the matter.