Fire Phone update with huge changelog rolling out, but nobody seems to care

The Amazon Fire Phone was launched in June to a pretty unrelenting crowd, and immediately received bad reviews and criticism for its hefty price as well as unimpressive features. Even though the Fire Phone launch was pretty much a failure, Amazon reiterated that it wasn’t going to give up on its own smartphone line and suggested that the Fire Phone 2 and even the Fire Phone 3 would hit the market next year. Now, the Fire Phone is receiving a substantial update with a huge changelog, but there are very few expressing any interest in the update whatsoever.

The Fire Phone was originally around $600 unlocked, which is quite hefty considering that the phone didn’t bring anything new or innovative to the market, save for restrictions. After a few months, Amazon realized that the Fire Phone was no good and dropped its price to $200 for the unlocked version, yet attention was still not building up towards the phone. Now, Amazon decided that maybe it would change customers’ minds if it would release a comprehensive update for the Fire Phone, which should be rolling out today.

The Fire Phone update lets you add custom ringtones, block phone numbers, connect to VPN as well as choose various languages for the keyboard. Firefly has also been updated, now being able to identify famous artwork, which could be a useful feature for those of you who like thrifting or antiquing – that is if any of you do that. The Fire Phone update also adds a few new settings to SMS and MMS as well as the ability to translate text through Firefly. The update also lets you customize your lock screen, adds an auto scroll for Kindle e-books and a “best shot” feature found in the camera app. Aside from the few new added features and function, the Fire Phone update should enhance performance and battery life, as well as fix certain bugs that have been reported. The user interface will also get a bit of an overhaul, which should be nice. The full changelog for the Fire Phone update can be found below.

Fire OS 3.6.5 (125013320)

The software version includes new and enhanced features:

• Translate text and identify famous artwork with FireflyText translation from/to: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, and artwork recognition for 2,000 famous paintings with info available from Wikipedia. To learn how to use Firefly, go to Identify Movies, Music, Products & More with Firefly.

• Take the perfect picture with Best ShotSee three versions of a given photo to choose the perfect shot. To learn how to use Best Shot, go to Take Photos & Personal Videos.

• Enable or disable SMS / MMS settingsYou can now turn character counts and MMS on or off. To learn about SMS/MMS, go to Messaging.

• Select additional keyboard languagesChoose from seven preloaded keyboard languages and 49 additional keyboard languages to download. To learn how to download a keyboard, go to Customize Your Language & Keyboard.

• Block unwanted phone numbersDecline unwanted calls from any given contact. To learn how to block phone calls, go to Review Your Call History.

• Add custom ringtones to your phoneAdd custom ringtones from the Amazon Appstore to your Fire phone. To learn more, go to Manage Ringtones & Notifications.

• View more information from the lock screenControl music directly from the lock screen, and configure your phone to wake up when a new notification arrives. To learn about the lock screen, go toCustomize the Lock Screen.

• Write and edit documents with WPS OfficeEdit documents using the new, preloaded WPS Office app. To learn more, go toDocs.

• Connect to a virtual private network (VPN) at workConnect to a secure, corporate VPN from your Fire using the native IPSec / L2TP VPN client to stay productive while on the go. To learn how to use the VPN feature, go to Set Up a VPN.

• Sync calendars across Amazon devices registered to your Amazon accountCreate appointments that are automatically synced across supported Fire phones and Fire tablets registered to your Amazon account with Amazon Cloud Calendar. To learn how to use Amazon Cloud Calendar, go to Calendar.

• Read your Kindle books in one continuous scrollRead and scroll through Kindle books without ever having to touch the screen. To learn how to use Auto-Scroll, go to One-Handed Shortcuts.

• Improved battery lifeDozens of systems updates for enhanced battery performance.

• Bug fixes and user interface improvements

  Hundreds of other bug fixes and user interface improvements.