Despite of lack-luster response for its first Fire smartphone, Amazon is not leaving any stone unturned to push the smartphone as it has now rolled out a major software update (v3.6.5) for its Fire phone that adds a host of new features including bug fixes, performance and battery life improvements.
Among the new features in the Friday update is text translation for the Fire Phone’s Firefly app, where users can scan text and have it converted to or from English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. The update adds a new artwork-recognition tool that can identify around 2,000 famous pieces of art.
A new camera feature dubbed ‘Best Shot’ is included in the update which lets users see three versions of a photo and choose the best-looking one of the three.
The update adds the ability to block calls from user-defined numbers as well as support for custom ringtones. Fire phone users can download new ringtones from the Amazon Appstore, choose from seven preloaded keyboard languages and 49 additional keyboard languages to download, control music from the lock screen, connect to a corporate VPN, sync calendars across other Fire devices, and read and scroll through Kindle books without having to touch the screen with Auto-Scroll.
The extensive new software pack also includes the WPS Office app, allowing users to view and edit Office documents from Word, PowerPoint and Excel on their device, dozens of systems updates for enhanced battery performance, bug fixes and user interface improvements.
Recent rumors suggest that a second Fire phone iteration is also in Amazon’s pipeline.
