Tag: amazon

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Amazon Gets Into the LLM Game with Nova

Amazon just got into the LLM arena with Amazon Nova. And they announced not one, not two, but SIX models!

  1. Amazon Nova Micro: Text-only model delivering low-latency responses, ideal for language understanding, translation, reasoning, and code completion.
  2. Amazon Nova Lite: Low-cost multimodal model, lightning-fast for processing text, image, and video inputs, suitable for interactive and high-volume applications.
  3. Amazon Nova Pro: High-capability multimodal model with top accuracy, speed, and cost efficiency for diverse tasks, excelling at instruction following and agentic workflows.
  4. Amazon Nova Premier: Coming soon. Likely a premium version of Nova Pro with more features and/or better performance.
  5. Amazon Nova Canvas: Advanced image generation model for creating and editing professional-grade images from text or image prompts.
  6. Amazon Nova Reel: Video generation model enabling high-quality video creation from text and images, with natural language controls for style and pacing.

The LLM landscape just got bigger and better!

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Amazon Fire Phone

My first thought when I saw Amazon’s new Fire Phone was it looks like a midrange Android phone. And it is. My second thought was what’s up with all those cameras? What originally was rumored to be a 3D display turned out to be a regular 2D display with Dynamic Perspective which adjusts the display depending on what your head is doing. Kind of like the Kinect. That’s what all those cameras are for. And that’s one of the Fire Phone’s main or at least most visible features.

Then there’s Firefly which seems to be Google Goggles on steroids. Take a picture of pretty much anything and it will be recognized and offered for you to buy. A shopaholic’s dream. There’s also Mayday tech support on demand and a one-year subscription (or extension to existing subscribers) to Amazon Prime.

So why did Amazon come up with a phone? I think it’s because you use a Kindle e-book reader when you’re reading, a Kindle Fire tablet when you’re reading, watching videos, and other tablet stuff, and a Fire TV when you’re in the living room. But these days it is the phone that is with you practically all the time. That means more opportunities to shop. With Firefly. At Amazon. I think that’s really all there is to it.

So will the Fire Phone sell? Jeff Bezos apparently thinks so. He certainly hopes so. Because even if Amazon doesn’t usually plan to make money from its devices, it definitely wants users of those devices to shop at Amazon. And they can’t do that dangerously easy shopping if they don’t buy the Fire Phone.

But aside from easy shopping, which you can do less dangerously elsewhere, what else would make it compelling? As a phone, it’s a midranger and it’s not even really Android. Dynamic Perspective strikes me as a bit gimmicky. Mayday? You shouldn’t need to use it. Personally, I really can’t think of a compelling reason.

 

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Kindle Paperwhite

kindle-paperwhiteSo I finally got my Kindle Paperwhite. It’s your regular Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi version with the notable difference that since it’s the Japan version, it’s got 4GB instead of 2GB to account for the popularity of manga I guess. But for regular books, that translates to twice the number, from 2000 to 4000, of books if you somehow have that many.

The e-paper display, for which the Kindle is known for, is definitely awesome. No glare or reflections at all. The background color is actually a greenish gray which is actually fine for reading. To get the paper white background color, you’ll need to turn on the built-in light which might impact the battery a bit. But it shouldn’t matter since it’s rated to last weeks instead of several hours with even the best tablets (iPads :P). A few hours, even days reduction shouldn’t matter much. And in exchange you get to read with a pleasing warm paper white background and read in darker environments. That’s quite fair enough.

The display is touch-sensitive and works well once you’ve gotten used to it. It is not as sensitive as the best tablets but definitely better than some of the others. Definitely sensitive enough for changing pages, which is the most common use. Since this is an e-paper display, refresh rates are not high and thus you change pages instead of scrolling. Scrolling is supported by the built-in experimental browser, but it’s not pretty. Still, in a pinch, it’s workable.

Of course it works awesomely with the Amazon bookstore. But a problem for me is how easy to buy something. I myself ended up with accidental purchases. This is offset somewhat by how easy to cancel a purchase. But I personally would prefer some authentication especially if kids are around. Another problem is that it’s a little harder to find the free books (yes, there are lots of them in Amazon) since they’re almost always mixed in with the paid books. But hey, that’s Amazon’s main business after all. And I’ve always been happy with them. Including with this e-book reader.

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New Kindle Fires

Amazon has announced a whole raft of Kindle e-readers and tablets. But the interesting ones to me were the tablets. There are 3 of them, the Kindle Fire 8.9″ HD with 4G, the Kindle Fire 8.9″ HD, and the 7″ Kindle Fire HD. The bigger Kindle Fire HDs compete directly with the iPad while the smaller competes directly with the Google Nexus 7 and the much rumored iPad Mini. The battle of the big three is heating up even more. What’s interesting is that while Amazon started with books, Google with ads, and Apple with songs, pretty much all of them are now selling the same stuff: books, ads, songs, movies, etc. But Amazon has a huge leg up: shopping. Google and Apple would do well to get into that, maybe by buying eBay?

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Google Nexus 7

Google has announced their much-anticipated own brand tablet. At $199 it competes squarely against the older Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and Amazon Kindle Fire. More importantly it moves closer towards the high-value price points set by the iPad. Way to go, Google!

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Amazon Kindle Fire Google Nexus 7
Size 193.7 x 122.4 x 10.5 mm 190 x 120 x 11.4 mm 198.5 x 120 x 10.5 mm
Weight 344 g 413 g 340 g
Display PLS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors LED-backlit IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
1024 x 600 pixels. 7 inches 1024 x 600 pixels, 7.0 inches 1280 x 800 pixels, 7.0 inches
Processor Dual-core 1 GHz CPU, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP 4430 chipset Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP 4430 chipset Quad-core 1.3 GHz processor, 12-core ULP GeForce GPU, Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset
RAM 1 GB RAM 512 MB RAM 1 GB RAM
Internal Storage 8/16/32 GB storage 8 GB storage 8/16 GB storage
External Storage Up to 64GB No External Memory No External Memory
Data Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Operating System Android OS, v4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Amazon-customized Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread) Android OS, v4.1 (Jelly Bean)
Primary Camera 3.15 MP none 1.2 MP
Secondary Camera VGA none none
Video 1080p at 30fps none 720p at 30fps
Apps Android Market + access to non-market apps Amazon AppStore Android Market + access to non-market apps
Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 4000 mAh Standard battery, Li-Ion 4400 mAh Standard battery, Li-Ion 4325 mAh
Battery Life 8h 8h 8h