May

WSJ Says Amazon Is Working On Two Smartphones... With The Caveat That The Projects Could Be Shelved At Any Time

Posted by David Ruddock in Amazon, News, Rumors

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is working on making not one, but two smartphones. And one of them will have some kind of awesome quasi-holographic glasses-free 3D display. That sounds like the kind of 3D people might actually want! The other one is... a phone of some kind. That's literally all the detail that was provided.

The one you're actually interested in, though, did come with a few extra tidbits about this glasses-free holographic voodoo magic. The Journal's sources claim that the phone will use "retina-tracking" technology to display an image that appears to actually float above the screen at any angle, and that this technology may also allow navigation of some parts of the phone using only your eyes.

Jan

Android: A Look Back To 2012, And A Look Forward To 2013

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Editorials, News, Rumors

Last Updated: January 7th, 2013

Happy New Year! It's that time again; with the new year comes our new annual prediction post. I tackled this last year, and rather than do a bunch of crazy, pulled-from-thin-air predictions, I ended up with a link-filled research-fest for the year. It worked out pretty well, so that's what's on the docket for today. First though, I'll take a look and see just how many of last year's predictions and rumors came true, and provide some updates for the more important topics.

A Look Back To 2012

What a crazy year. 2012 brought us two versions of Jelly Bean: 4.1 and 4.2. We saw a complete transformation of Google Search with the Knowledge Graph, Google Now, voice output, and Google Goggles integration.

Sep

Sources Confirm To The Verge That An Amazon Smartphone Is Coming, May Be Announced Tomorrow

Posted by David Ruddock in Amazon, Android OS, News, Rumors

After Motorola's big event today, we didn't figure much of anything else interesting would be going on. We were wrong - numerous sources have confirmed to TheVerge that Amazon is legitimately, actually working on a smartphone. We totally pretended to call it.

Those same sources say that Amazon's phone is yet to be totally finished, but that we may see a prototype tomorrow at Amazon's event in Los Angeles. They've also confirmed it runs a variant of an expected-to-be-announced Android 4.0-based Kindle Fire OS, which makes sense. That means no Google services, which definitely would put it at a disadvantage compared to, well, almost everything on the market.

Nov

[Rumor] Is An Amazon Smartphone In The Works? Signs Point To 'Yes'

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Amazon, News, Rumors

Even though the Kindle Fire has only been out for a couple of days, rumors are already circulating about what Amazon could be planning for next year - a foray into the smartphone world.

According to a research report put out this morning by a couple of Citi analysts, Amazon appears to be developing a smartphone in collaboration with Foxconn, though the actual device will most like be manufactured by the same company that produces the Kindle line. The suggested chip under the hood of this device is said to be a TI OMAP4, with a Qualcomm dual mode 6-series standalone baseband handling the radio work.