Amazon Unveils The Fire Phone

It's been a long time coming, and now the next step in Amazon's bid to take over all of tech has finally arrived. Today in Seattle, CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the Fire Phone, the company's first foray into the mobile market.

The cell phone features a 4.7-inch HD display, which Bezos said was the optimal size for one-handed use. The display, which Amazon is calling "Dynamic Perspective," adds new textures to maps and other apps, falling short of the 3-D some analysts were predicting. As with other Amazon devices, the phone includes Mayday (which connects to live tech support) and X-Ray (which provides supplemental info for Kindle books). Amazon Prime members will also be able to borrow Kindle books, as they have with other Amazon devices.

Most interesting, perhaps, is Firefly, a new tool that recognizes almost everything you point the phone at — from QR codes to DVD covers to Kind bars — and finds a way to buy it.

Bezos touted the phone's photography specs, too. The Fire Phone has a 13-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization. Should you worry about where to keep all of those photos, Amazon is offering unlimited cloud storage.

On the audio side of things, the new mobile has a set of stereo speakers and flat, magnetic headphones that Bezos promised won't get tangled. (We'll believe it when we see it.)

According to the Wall Street Journal, AT&T will be Amazon's exclusive carrier. The Fire Phone will retail for $200 for 32 gigabytes and $300 for 64 gigabytes, both with two-year contracts. The phone will be available for purchase on July 25. (AP)