Amazon new launch event June 18th

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

With the right hardware, it would make a great audio player - Audible, Prime Music, Pandora, FM radio, etc. With enough storage, you could download MP3s and audiobooks.

Add Bluetooth and presto; there goes my iPod for taking walks. Yes, that would be great.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Three things:

1. Even if I were interested in a Fire Phone, I'd wait to buy one until at least the second iteration. It's rare for anyone to get a new product line right on the first try -- let alone with as many new services as this.

In terms of first-gen phones, I'm more interested in the OnePlus One. OnePlus has made the One absurdly difficult to buy for the mome, and the difficulty is intentional, but that's aces with this compulsively hesitant fussbudget. Let someone else beta-test the One and list the drawbacks they discover (whether it allows USB audio and file transfers, etc.). Since the One ships with CyanogenMod installed, I don't foresee user flexibility issues, but one never knows. Still, according to iFixit, the battery is nigh impossible to replace.

2. I tend not to like walled gardens that can't be scaled easily and practically over time, which is why I've never owned an iPhone. If the FP had the potential to be rooted easily and was, if Amazon didn't make rooting impractical through mandatory upgrades and store/feature access, and if fundamental dependency on Amazon's ecosystem weren't burned inescapably into the device, then perhaps I'd buy the off-contract version if no other phone interested me.

3. Amazon tablets sometimes offer better audio than certain other competitive devices, but I have no idea whether the FP allows USB audio (via an OTG cable). If it does, and if its speakers and DAC chip prove especially good, then the FP could become an option for music lovers -- even more so with the various services offered by Amazon.

[Edit: Since the FP uses a Snapdragon 800 processor, the DAC chip is just as mediocre as every other U.S.-specific LTE smartphone's. Most international versions of Samsung devices with the Exynos processor, like the S5, tend to use a Wolfson DAC and are clear winners in terms of sound but not data speed.]

As for cheaper carriers:

I prefer Ting over Wireless Republic because of the BTOD option, but both carriers are problematic for me because GSM is better for those of us in the U.S. who travel to other countries. Ultimately, Sprint should to switch to GSM and probably will, so I'd hate to find out that was happening right after buying an expensive CDMA device.

[tubemonkey]

Saw my first Fire Phone commercial. Really lame!

"It comes with Prime?" - what a shocker

[Jessica Lares]

The reviews are out. Pretty much everyone's saying the same thing, that it could be better.

The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/22/59...e-phone-review

Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/...growing-pains/

CNet: http://www.cnet.com/products/amazon-fire-phone/

New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/te...ire-phone.html

Re/code: http://recode.net/2014/07/22/can-the...e-and-samsung/

[tubemonkey]

Price it at $300 unlocked and I'd get one.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Price it at $300 unlocked and I'd get one.

If it were a help and an aid to me, and not at an outrageous price, I'd make arrangement to get it -- whether buying it outright right now or saving for it.

Time is a much more finite resource than money. Sometimes it's worth it to spend more money (of which one may conceivably have the opportunity to earn more) to save time (which cannot be regained when lost and cannot be saved for a rainy day, etc.).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Shane R

Time is a much more finite resource than money. Sometimes it's worth it to spend more money (of which one may conceivably have the opportunity to earn more) to save time (which cannot be regained when lost and cannot be saved for a rainy day, etc.).

Also depends how long you plan to keep it for, of course. I spent £560 (about US$900) on my iPhone 4, but I've now had it for more than 4 years, and have a very cheap "SIM-only" monthly contract for it, so it's worked out pretty cheaply in terms of monthly cost.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

The reviews are out. Pretty much everyone's saying the same thing, that it could be better.

The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/22/59...e-phone-review

Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/...growing-pains/

CNet: http://www.cnet.com/products/amazon-fire-phone/

New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/te...ire-phone.html

Re/code: http://recode.net/2014/07/22/can-the...e-and-samsung/

Here's another:
http://www.zdnet.com/amazons-fire-ph...tag=TRE17cfd61

They make one interesting point on pricing:

If you want pure Android — as if there's such a thing unless you buy directly unlocked from Google — the Fire won't fly for you. Most of us have some bogged-down version and Amazon's value add actually adds value. Speaking of value, Amazon's price at $199 is an issue, but that model has more to do with dealing with carriers over the e-commerce giant's decisions. The goodies with Fire arguably offset the $199. Consider:

Fire comes with 32GB standard. Most $199 phones under contract start with 16GB.

Prime, which runs $99, is included for 12 months. Existing Prime subscribers are extended.

Unlimited cloud storage is provided and depending on what vendor you use the bundle is worth at least $40.

Do the math and you can argue that the Fire Phone is heavily subsidized with Amazon services.

Details at the source.
Being a corporate IT site, they focus on work life/personal life integration.

[Aanya]

Ha ha!! Is is that smart phone launched on June?
Not showing any devices, only monkeys...

[tubemonkey]

After price, the other major drawback to the Fire Phone is the carrier lock down. Even if I wanted to use a smartphone as a phone, I couldn't get the Fire because it's not Verizon.


Amazon should rename it --> fPhone

[Jessica Lares]

Amazon could include a $500 gift certificate to cover any "accidental" purchases made with it, sand it still wouldn't make the phone any better. People would probably just throw it on eBay/Craiglist after a week.

Huge deal when just about every article is saying the same thing.

The software is more important than the tech specs.

[tubemonkey]

Today is launch day and iFixit did a teardown. They gave it a 3 for its repairability score. Not good. Oh well, matters not since pricing will kill this device.

[jersysman]

I still say this is similar and not similar to the iPhone launch. Where it is similar is the iPhone was only available for AT&T at the time of launch. However, where it is not smimilar is that there are now lots of choices when it comes to smartphones. This phone will not take off until it is available on more carriers because not many will be paying full price for it.

[tubemonkey]

This phone needs to be sold unlocked and priced in the Moto-Nexus range.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

This phone needs to be sold unlocked and priced in the Moto-Nexus range.

Needs to be? Amazon are not known for making many poor business decisions. I'm sure that if sales results demonstrate they've got the pricing wrong, they'll change it. Let's wait and see.