This article is more than 1 year old
Amazon's EYE-OF-SAURON KindlePhone will watch you with FOUR cameras - report
Jeff Bezos 'value' handset also on offer soon, they say
Amazon's long slog to developing its own smartphone will bear fruit with the launch of two new models in 2014, the details of which appear to have been revealed in an unverified post by an "insider" on HN heard all over the tech world.
All the project has yielded so far are some wildly improbable net rumours that need to be taken with a lorryload of salt - such as the idea that Amazon would give the phone away for nothing. Amazon took the unusual step of kiboshing that rumour very publicly.
In May the Wall Street Journal reported the Amazon phone would feature a 3D interface with four cameras that monitored the user's eyes and head movements. That's figured into the eye-of-Sauron handset from the latest round of rumours, too.
And that's not so surprising. Such peepware gives Amazon a mass of physiological data with which to infer behaviour – something the company is naturally very interested in. The Samsung Galaxy S4 can be controlled with the eyes to some extent – the phone knows you're looking at it.
The creepy, four-camera model is apparently called Smith. A cheaper device without the tracking equipment will be launched alongside it, suggests TechCrunch, which first spotted the "insider's" post, here. Amazon had hoped to introduce the phone this year, but missed its target.
If Amazon replicates its strategy for the Kindle, the device will be priced at close to cost, perhaps with perks for Prime subscribers. Amazon will then make its profit over the lifetime of the device. ®