Tech Talk / By Martha Knight

Rumors of a new generation of smartphones. Tantalizing leaks about dazzling new features. Another major player entering the field. At last something that would heighten the competition and lower the prices. May it be so!

This past week the buzz has been about Amazon’s Fire Phone. Amazon has had a tablet out there, going back to when some of us users learned that certain Kindle devices marketed as readers could be “rooted”, and then when Amazon began marketing more versatile Kindles billed as Fire handhelds that did most of what most of us want tablets to do.

Fine by us who don’t buy into the idea that Apple products or marketing methods are always several degrees cooler than other products in whatever category is being discussed—pods, pads, tunes, cloud, book, Mac, anything with an i in front of it.

But Amazon had not got all the way into the manufacturing and marketing of other devices. As for smartphones, the big competition seemed to be between Apple and Samsung. The market would welcome more platforms or operating systems for gadgets to use, something in addition to iOS and Android, and a couple of others that weren’t making huge inroads yet. With the implosion of Blackberry, choices were fewer. Google seems to be more interested in other ventures.

Samsung came out with a new Galaxy phone just weeks ago, and it appears to be a stunner. So if Amazon was going to surge into the smartphone market, it should try to do that before too many of us have placed orders for the latest Samsung offering.

Not that we could actually get an Amazon Fire smartphone. It isn’t available yet. But if we see the ads and commercials and videos, we might decide we must wait until Fire is released (late July) before buying any new smartphone. That seems to be the reasoning behind Amazon’s strategy.

What is the Fire OS? Well, it’s a proprietary version of Android. But then, Samsung builds its OS on Android.

As for the device itself, it will come in a $199 version and a $299 version (32 GB and 64 GB respectively)—with a two-year contract-- and it looks pretty much like an iPhone.

But Fire is not your common, everyday smartphone.  There are these gee-whiz features, such as 3D, and a lifeline to service, and four cameras, and---

Okay, Fire has a 4.7-inch display. That is bigger than the iPhone’s 5S, but there are some Android phones that have more screen real estate.

Amazon seems to be betting that users are going to like the more compact width, because it is ideal for one-handed use. The promotional videos emphasize one-handing a lot. It’s a guy’s hand we see, most of the time, but I just know it would be totally comfy for me if I could just get my mitt on one.

Those four cameras I mentioned? I should have said four on the front. Those are to provide the “Dynamic Perspective” Amazon is hyping. Those sense how the Fire is being held and moves, this enabling the swivel, tilt and sideling “peek” features.

There’s the Firefly app with its own button, a round beetle that actually doesn’t look like a member of the Lampryridae family—those aren’t round. Still, it’s a clever concept. It can do bar code recognition and quick response codes, access info in the Contacts folder, and assist mightily with shopping. Especially shopping at Amazon! Mama Bezos did not raise any dummies, you know, and her boy Jeff knows a thing or two about marketing.

There’s a Mayday button too. It summons technical support. Actually that isn’t a brand new feature: it was included on the Kindle Fire HDX. Using the Mayday function, you can signal your distress to a tech person who works for Amazon and will respond within 10 seconds, helping even with stressors like being stuck in some game.

What, you would rather tap out SOS in Morse? Dial a number and say “Mayday. Mayday. Mayday.”? Not me. On any day of any month, even though repeating “m’aider” is like saying “venez m’aider” (come help me). I’d like to be able to tap a key or push a control to get immediate tech support.

Photos, lots of photos, and places to store them! We never get enough. We are endlessly delighted with how great the photos are that we take. We know everyone else will be, too, and share them lavishly. Of course a lot of them are selfies. But will we ever look exactly the same as we look right this instant? No, not exactly. We are aging even as we speak. Preserve the moment.

Where to store so many images? that’s obvious: in the Cloud. True, the Fire comes with 32 or 64 Gb of storage, but what with all the apps we will be using and the sheer size of the photos we’ll be able to take with that 13 megapixel serious camera, the rear-facing one, we’ll appreciate the free storage that will be provided to Fire smartphone owners.

What about the hardware inside this compact smartphone? There’s the 2.2 GHz quadcore Snapdragon 800, Qualcom’s speedy processor (just a notch faster than the one in the latest Samsung Galaxy). There are 2 GB of RAM—as much as some laptops and even some desktops.

There’s support for 802.11 ac WiFi. There’s a Micro USB port for charging, and, I suppose, for offloading data. Battery life is claimed to be 22 hours of phone use, and 285 of standby. Watch videos up to 11 hours, playback audio 60 hours or more. That 2,400mAh battery can be removed and replaced; some phones don’t put up with that.

Then there’s ASAP, which means Advanced Streaming and Prediction. It “learns” your tastes and viewing habits and figures out what you might want to watch, and buffers that content in the background. Sounds rather spooky to me, but it might appeal to movie and TV addicts.

That two-year contract? So far, Amazon has one favored carrier: AT&T. Or you can buy the unlocked phone for $695. (Well, I can’t, but I know people who can and will.). And only after July 25. Samsung Galaxy S5 is fine with Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T.