Moving On From Fire Phone Turmoil, Amazon Plans New Android Smartphones: Report (bit.ly) 40
Reader joshtops writes: Amazon plans to have another go at selling its own branded smartphones, according to a new report. The ecommerce giant, which killed off its Fire Phone in 2015, is working on a new lineup of smartphones branded as 'Ice', the report said, citing unnamed sources. Unlike the Fire Phone -- for which Amazon focused largely on the US and a couple of other western markets -- the company is eyeing emerging regions like India for selling its new phones. Amazon's upcoming smartphones run the latest version of Google's Android operating system with Google Mobile Services (GMS) such as Gmail and Google Play, the people said. Incorporating Google Mobile Services in its devices is a major change in strategy for Amazon, which currently offers a range of Android tablets without Google apps on them. The smartphones are being referred to as 'Ice' internally, in what could be a move to distance itself from the disastrous Fire Phone brand, though it's not clear if Amazon will eventually bring the devices under the Ice name. A source cited in the story said the phones will ship with Alexa, Amazon's AI assistant.
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What the fuck is wrong with you?
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Could someone watch these and summarize for me? Otherwise I'll have to wait until the end of the day to view them myself (and I'll likely forget).
I'm always open to listening to the "nutjobs" and giving them fair consideration. After all, just a few years ago you'd be branded as a "nutjob" for saying our government was reading on our emails, listening to our calls, tracking our location, hacking our PCs, etc.
Failed because it didn't live up to its name (Score:2)
Lesson learned (Score:5, Insightful)
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It would be nice if they allowed their Fire Tablets to access the Google ecosystem without having to root the devices, though. . . .They've sold a metric buttload of Kindle Fire Tablets. . .
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Is this even allowed with the current Android terms? Given they maintain an active fork of Android, I think they would be excluded from participating
Every manufacturer has a fork of Android. To be able to call it "Android", you just need to pass CTS,
https://source.android.com/com... [android.com]
Which isn't hard, proof being the vast number of Android devices out there.
Hopefully Amazon is getting smart. Their devices should be subsidized standard Android + Google devices that are cheap $-wise at the expense of having Amazon crap pushed in your face night and day. Not a trade off that's particularly attractive to me, but I think there's a market for it.
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I wish they would at least offer and support them here in the US. Not everyone needs a flagship Android phone.
Oh, and they should have some method for a bootloader unlock.
Steps in the right direction. (Score:1)
I'm guessing Chomecast will still be blocked somehow.
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But how many weird scripts are there in the region?
How many languages are there in India and immediate neighbors that we've never heard of?
For an example there's Tamil script and language, which makes me think of Thai script - only because Thai script is different from other scripts (Thailand is far off, but so is Tamil area itself compared to other India's regions). Both are obviously different from what I will call the Sanskrit-like script : this one is the one where letters are jointed at the top - now I
How about the Fire tablets (Score:3)
Fire tablets are fairly decent, however they have one major drawback. The lack of the Google play store for regular apps makes the tablets second tier for actual use. If Amazon would get the Google app store on their fire tablets they could easily become the dominant android tablet on the market.
Gee, what a 'cool' name (Score:2)
Maybe after this fails they will try something that 'rocks' like... rock
And when that fails we can all call it 'brick'
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Amazon Fire Phone was a good phone with ONE prob.. (Score:2)
The restriction to Amazon's own store. They did it wrong....
The Fire phone was actually pretty nice. I later got one when they were discontinued to use as a tablet. But the issue is that they locked you into the Amazon store, and made it a hassle to use Google Play and buy standard apps. BAD!!!!
What Amazon needs to do, is include both stores, but incentivize using the Amazon store.
How would I do that? I would release my next phone in conjunction with Amazon Coin. Purchase of a new Amazon phone would in
Amazon's Android implementations are not so great (Score:2)
I had a Kindle Fire HD that went into brick mode a few years ago. Despite numerous attempts with Amazon tech support, Internet research, and all sorts of recovery procedures involving a "factory cable" to get into fast boot mode, it remains a brick to this day. It starts up OK, but when it gets to the unlock screen, it freezes after the swipe, leaving no keypad and thus no way to enter an unlock code. I have found others with the same problem, but not a single one seems to have a solution.
When Amazon ele
They should have called it the Fyre phone! (Score:2)
A pong (Score:2)
if amazon's android phones are anything like (Score:2)
i bought amazon's android powered kindle and it sucked so bad i gave it away and just bought a samsung tablet and installed the kindle app, i rather kindle be just an app on a tablet than what amazon has done and totally taken control of the device's software
Rodney had this... (Score:2)
Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield - Back to School)