Amazon Fire Phone announced

After years of rumors, alleged leaks, and speculation, Amazon and Jeff Bezos have finally unveiled their “amazing new device”: the Fire Phone.

With some heavy competition ahead of it, the Fire Phone seems built to go toe to toe with any iPhone or Android product already out there. It comes equipped a 4.7-inch HD display, a Qualcomm processor, 2 GB of RAM, Adreno 330 graphics, stereo sound speakers, and runs on Fire OS, Amazons Android-based operating system. Amazon has put a major focus on the phone’s camera, 13-megapixels with optical image stabilization. Amazon is also offering unlimited cloud photo storage with Amazon Cloud Drive, which gives it a definite edge to any other phone on the market in that regard, especially with mere 5 GB  that Apple’s iCloud service, which seems tiny in comparison. The rumored 3D view also is featured, thanks to the multiple front-facing cameras, creating a “dynamic perspective”, as Bezos put it, which shifts as the user tilts the device, and carrying over to applications like Maps and Yelp, which can display buildings and other objects in 3D without glasses. These cameras are also used in navigation, to open menus or scroll in applications.

Perhaps the most innovative feature the Amazon Fire Phone has to offer is the Firefly, a recognition technology that can sense the world around it, giving you options to purchase anything the phone can see, as well as identify sounds like music or television shows, similar to the Shazam service, Firefly is activated using the camera button, According to Bezos, Firefly can sense and recognize up to 100 million items, and will expand as 3rd party developers begin to incorporate  it into their products, like identifying wine or nutritional facts on specific foods.  Shopping is Amazon’s specialty, and it is trying to make sure that buying is as easy and accessible as possible with their new phone.

While this is a new frontier for Amazon, this is still an Amazon product, and it is designed to run with their many existing services, such as Amazon Prime Music and Video, and several applications for reading ebooks like WhisperSync for Voice, which is allows you to seamlessly change from reading a book to listening to it. Other features, like X-Ray and ASAP, can provide information on what you are currently watching and cache streaming video for the future, respectively.

So when can you get it, and for how much? Amazon has also announced a deal with AT&T to make the phone available for $199.99 with a two-year contract for the 32 GB version. A 64GB model is also available for $299 with two years as well. Without a contract, the phone will run you $649 and $749 for the 32 and 64GB versions. The Amazon Fire Phone is expected to ship July 25th.