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(Image source: Flickr / Robert Scoble)
BY EVAN THOMAS
If the rumors are to be believed, Amazon is still planning to expand its hardware offerings
beyond tablets — to smartphones.
Unconfirmed details leaked to Hacker News indicate Amazon is working on two handsets.
One is a value-device running software similar to FireOS, the modified version of Android
that powers Amazon's existing Kindle Fire tablets.
It would launch this year, which jives with this earlier report on the hardware from Jessica
Lessin, but it would not be free as was originally suggested.
The high-end phone, codenamed Smith, would incorporate four forward-facing cameras.
These would track the user's identity, follow eye movements to present a simulated 3D interface,
and could be used to capture images of real-world objects and call up an option to purchase
them on Amazon. (Via TechCrunch)
Fancy stuff, says The Verge — perhaps needlessly so.
"It all sounds like a wild (and not immediately useful) set of features, wild enough that
it could be more of an in-house lab project than a product destined for actual sales."
In any case, the devices reportedly already exist — locked in steel cases that obscure
everything but the screen, residing in Amazon's high-security hardware crucible, Lab126.
When Amazon might release the phones — and if all this tech makes it into the finished
versions — remains unclear. The company has denied it's planning more hardware announcements
this year.