Over the past couple of years there has been much speculation about Amazon’s smartphone plans. The company kept those plans secret until a few months back when it formally unveiled the Amazon Fire Phone. The company has now released the first software update for its first smartphone which brings some much needed features that quite frankly should have been onboard the device on day one.
Fire Phone runs on a heavily modified fork of Android with Amazon’s own customizations. Updates will be sent over the air and will be downloaded and installed automatically on the device. Alternatively users can hook up the device to their computer, download and transfer the update through it.
Apart from an enhanced email carousel, improved video sharing and battery life, the update brings the ability to create folders of apps right on the app grid. This feature is called App Grid Collections.
Another feature added to the Fire Phone is called Quick Switch which improves the multitasking experience. Tapping the home button twice now brings up a menu through which users can jump between recent applications. It also adds the ability to take Lenticular photos will 11 still images instead of 3.
Since the Amazon Fire Phone is officially available in the US only right now the roll out process shouldn’t take that long since its essentially servicing just one market. Nevertheless the update is definitely going to improve the user experience for Fire Phone owners.
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