The US retail giant's ambitious project still requires additional safety testing and federal approval, but Bezos estimated that Amazon "Prime Air" would be up and running within four to five years.
A demo video posted on the company's website showed the tiny robotic devices picking up packages in small yellow buckets from Amazon's fulfillment centers and then whizzing through the air to deliver the items to customers just 30 minutes after they made their purchase on Amazon.com.
"I know this looks like science fiction. It's not," Bezos told CBS television's "60 Minutes" program.
"We can do half-hour delivery and we can carry objects, we think, up to five pounds (2.3 kilograms), which covers 86 percent of the items that we deliver."
The mini-drones are powered by electric motors and could cover areas within a 10-mile (16-kilometer) radius of fulfillment centers, thus covering a significant portion of the population in urban areas.
They operate autonomously and drop the items at the target locations thanks to GPS coordinates transmitted to them.
"It's very green, it's better than driving trucks around," said Bezos.
Amazon said the octocopters would be "ready to enter commercial operations as soon as the necessary regulations are in place," noting that the Federal Aviation Administration was actively working on rules for unmanned aerial vehicles.
It projected a more optimistic timeline than Bezos himself for the project to be activated, saying the FAA's rules could be in place as early as 2015 and that Amazon Prime Air would be ready at that time.
Bezos hinted that part of the motivation behind the mini-drones was to make sure Amazon remains on the cutting edge of the retail industry.
"Companies have short life spans. And Amazon will be disrupted one day," he said.
"I would love for it to be after I'm dead."
Remember when people used personal computers - desktops and laptops - to check email, view video and keep tabs on Facebook? Back in that far-away era, I'd have several windows open for Web browsers, a word processor, a photo editor and sometimes a reader for PDF documents.
I miss that capability on mobile devices, particularly on full-size tablets with a decent amount of display space. With iPads and Android tablets, I'm typically limited to one window displayed at a time; other apps run in the background, out of sight. With Windows 8 tablets, I can run two windows side by side, but I'm constrained in what I can do with them. It gets better with the Windows 8.1 update due out next week, but it's still not the free-for-all I had with PCs.
So I marveled at a pair of multitasking features that come with Samsung's new tablet, formally called Galaxy Note 10.1 - 2014 Edition. Sporting a 10.1-inch display, measured diagonally, the Note tablet goes on sale in the U.S. on Thursday at a starting price of $550.
The first of the multitasking features, called Multi-Window, has been available in Samsung devices for about a year, but it works with many more apps now. You can run two apps side by side, such as Facebook on one side and YouTube video on the other.
Like Windows 8 tablets, you're limited to just two apps. You can change how much of the screen each one takes, a capability coming with Windows 8.1, but you can't choose to have a window take up just the top left corner, the way you can on PCs. In addition, Multi-Window isn't a universal feature. Apps for Netflix and Hulu won't work, for instance. You currently have about 18 apps to choose from, including Facebook and a variety of Google and Samsung apps.
With that limitation, it's nice that Samsung Electronics Co. is supplementing Multi-Window with a feature called Pen Window.
With it, simply draw a box on the screen with the included stylus, and choose one of seven apps to open in a new window. Do it again and again until you open all seven apps, if you wish. That's nine in all, counting the two with Multi-Window. Each Pen Window app appears in a window that floats over your main app (or two apps if you use Multi-Window). You can move that window around on your screen and resize it, just as you can on PCs. Need a break from it? Just minimize it into a small dot and move it out of the way.
Like Multi-Window, you're restricted in what apps you can use with Pen Window, though I expect more to get added over time. For now, Pen Window on the tablet works with YouTube, the calculator, the alarm clock, your contacts list, the Web browser and two chat apps - Samsung's ChatOn and Google's Hangouts. I like the fact that you can open all of them and keep them out of the way in a minimized state. That way, it's just one click when you need the calculator and one click when you're done.
The iPad doesn't do that. Amazon's Kindle Fire doesn't do that. Other Android tablets don't do that. Windows 8.1 won't do that - at least not in the tablet-style viewing mode that Microsoft prefers you stick with. You'll have to go to the classic, desktop mode to resize windows, which defeats the purpose of having Windows 8 or 8.1. Windows 8.1 will go further than Multi-Window in letting you run up to four apps side by side, but that works only on larger screens, not portable tablets.
Beyond multitasking, the new Note tablet offers a My Magazine mode giving you personalized highlights, such as news topics of interest, content from your social media feeds and suggestions on things to do and see, based on your current location. It's a good concept, though Facebook isn't available through it yet.
The new tablet also gives you quick access to the tools you can accomplish with its stylus. Pen Window is one. Another feature lets you add notes to a screenshot of what you see. Another lets you clip a section of a Web page and store it with a Web link.
Unfortunately, not everything worked. Text recognition was poor. I'm supposed to be able to jot down an email address or a phone number with the stylus and have that handwriting converted into a contacts entry. But the device constantly confuses the letters "o" and "l" with the numerals "0" and "1."
Pen Window also is more difficult than necessary to set up. You need to take out the stylus for an Air Command tool to appear on the screen. You choose Pen Window, then draw a box on your screen with your stylus. Then you choose the app you want to open. Do all of that again to get additional apps, after figuring out how to get Air Command again with your stylus already out. It would have been simpler to have a button on the home screen that you can tap with your finger or stylus.
In addition, Samsung could have done more with the apps in minimized state. Google's chat app is reduced to a circular icon. It could have flashed or changed colors to notify me of a new chat message, rather than make me open and close it regularly to check.
The tablet's back is still made of plastic, but it feels like leather - an improvement over previous Samsung devices. The tablet does feel heavy, at 1.2 pounds, but that's still lighter than the 1.4 pounds for the full-size iPad. If you want light, wait until early November for the large-size version of Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX. It weighs just 0.83 pound.
Samsung's tablet is also pricey - the $550 starting price tops the iPad's $499 and the Fire's $379. Of course, neither the iPad nor the Fire includes a stylus.
One more complaint: Although the tablet uses the latest version of Android, 4.3, it doesn't offer that system's feature of letting multiple people share a device with separate profiles.
With the Note, it's clear some of the functionality we've long associated with PCs is coming to devices we're just getting to know. There's more to be done, including support for multiple users, but I'm glad Samsung is leading us in that direction.
For its upcoming mid-range smartphones, HTC will be using chipsets from players other than its long-time partner, Qualcomm, to counter competition from affordable handset manufacturers, as confirmed by a company executive.
Focus Taiwan has cited Jack Tong, HTC's head of China and North Asia, who shed some light on the company's plans for its upcoming mid-range smartphones.
According to Tong, the Taiwanese handset maker will start pricing its high-end smartphones at a more affordable level. Coming to the company's mid-range smartphones, Tong revealed that the three mid-range Desire smartphones the company launched on Wednesday, are using chips from ST-Ericsson, Spreadtrum and Broadcom, instead of Qualcomm.
Specifically, the HTC Desire 501 is powered by ST-Ericsson's U8520 dual-core processor, the Desire 601 dual-SIM is powered by Broadcom's Java quad-core processor, and the Desire 700 dual-SIM is powered by Spreadtrum's Shark quad-core processor.
"HTC will evaluate the situation. If most players in the industry are seeking high performance to cost, then we would not be able to ignore such a trend despite good design and applications," Tong told Focus Taiwan.
A recent report revealed that the Taiwanese smartphone maker would slash costs of its devices by nearly a quarter, and plans to sell cheaper devices in a bid to bounce back to profit in the October-December period.
Samsung's next flagship smartphone, expected to be called the Galaxy S5, might still be far from confirmed, but a new report suggests that the device will hit mass production in January 2014. The report also expects the speculated successor of Samsung Galaxy Gear to be launched alongside the rumoured Galaxy S5.
Korean publication, ET News reports that the South Korean manufacturer plans to release two versions of the alleged Galaxy S5. As per the report, there will be two variants of the Galaxy S5: a premium variant which will sport a metal chassis and a flexible OLED, and a variant which will come with the usual plastic body, as found on other Galaxy smartphones.
Earlier this week, a new set of images purportedly revealing the supposed metal frames of the rumoured Galaxy S5 was spotted online.
Further, the report speculates that Samsung will initially manufacture around 8,00,000 to 1 million units of the alleged Galaxy S5 in January, and will increase the number up to 6 million units in February. Samsung is likely to release the Galaxy S5 in March or April 2014, according to the report.
Sammobile has revealed some of the specifications of the alleged Galaxy S5, with two variants expected to be powered by 64-bit Exynos chipset and Snapdragon chipset (no word on this would be the new Snapdragon 805 chipset. Also expected on board is 3GB of RAM, a 16-megapixel camera, a 4000mAh battery and Android 4.4 KitKat with TouchWiz UI on top.
Earlier reports had suggested that Samsung's next-generation of high-end smartphones, including the rumoured Galaxy S5, would be equipped with a 16-megapixel camera, but didn't indicate the type of module.
In addition, the ET News also claims that Samsung is also busy developing the successor to the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, and that it might launch along with the alleged Galaxy S5. The next generation Samsung Galaxy Gear is said to be 15 to 20 percent thinner than the current smartwatch. As of now, there is no word on specifications of the rumoured Galaxy Gear smartwatch.
A recent report has suggested that sales figures Samsung's first wearable device, the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, had been disappointing. However, Samsung countered the claim immediately after, and said that it sold 800,000 smartwatch units in 2 months.
The Photo Max Wi-Fi can serve up to 5 Wi-Fi devices simultaneously and is capable of reaching download speeds of up to 6.2Mbps. It can be powered by any USB port, which means you can plug it into your laptop or any USB power adapter at home, or in the car, and get a Wi-Fi Internet connection wherever you go. Tata Docomo claims that the Wi-Fi hotspot has a range of 100 metres.
Like some of its siblings like the Photon Max and the Photo Plus, the Photon Max Wi-Fi operates at a frequency of 800MHz, which (theoretically) translates into better indoor connectivity than devices operating on GSM frequencies in India. The device comes with free roaming roaming across the country, though the Photo Max speeds of up to 6.2Mbps are limited to a little over 30 cities. In around 300 other Photon Plus cities, users will experience speeds up to 3.1Mbps, with the maximum speed coming down to 153.6Kbps in other regions.
Unlimited data plans with fair usage limits start at Rs. 650 and Rs. 730 per month for postpaid and prepaid users respectively, with speeds capped at 153.6Kbps once the limits are reached. Various other plans are being offered, including a pay as you go postpaid plan for Rs. 300 per month, with 0.5GB of free usage and Rs. 1,500 postpaid plan that comes with 15GB of usage.
Tata Photon Max Wi-Fi Prepaid Plans (may vary by region)
Existing Tata Photon customers can contact customer care for special upgrade offers
The Galaxy S Duos 2 is also available through online retailers for a discounted price of Rs. 10,730, quoting roughly 3 business days of delivery time.
The Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 comes with a 4-inch WVGA (480x800) TFT display and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor (unspecified chipset). It is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) smartphone and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz UI on top.
The Galaxy S Duos 2 sports a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and also includes a VGA front-facing camera. The smartphone comes with 768MB of RAM and 4GB of inbuilt storage, which is further expandable up to 64GB via microSD card.
Connectivity features on the Galaxy S Duos 2 include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, EDGE, GPRS and 3G. There is a 1500mAh battery backing the device which the company claims can deliver up to 8 hours of talktime and up to 280 hours of standby time. The Galaxy S Duos 2 has dimensions of 121.5x63.1x10.57mm, and weighs 118 grams.
Recently, Samsung announced the successor to the Galaxy Grand, the Galaxy Grand 2. Though, the South Korean handset maker has not revealed the price for Galaxy Grand 2 and has also not announced the availability details for the smartphone.
The Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out-of-the-box. The Galaxy Grand 2 is a dual-SIM device with support for GSM+GSM. It features a 5.2-inch HD TFT display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels.
The Galaxy Grand 2 is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor alongside 1.5GB of RAM. It sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera accompanied by an LED flash. It also houses a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera. It comes with 8GB inbuilt storage, which is further expandable up to 64GB via microSD card.
Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 key specifications
- 4-inch WVGA (480x800) TFT display
- 1.2GHz dual-core processor (unspecified chipset)
- 768MB of RAM
- 4GB inbuilt storage, expandable up to 64GB via microSD card
- 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
- VGA front-facing camera
- Dual-SIM (GSM+GSM)
- Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz UI
- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, EDGE, GPRS and 3G
- 1500mAh battery
- 121.5x63.1x10.57mm
Build/ Design
The Nexus 5 sports a very understated look and there's nothing really striking in the phone's design that will shout for your attention. The phone is made of plastic and doesn't feel very premium.
However, when you place the phone in your hand, you'll feel that it's very pleasant to hold thanks to the soft touch matte finish. Also, despite its large 4.95-inch screen, we didn't face any issues operating it with one hand. This is also due to the phone being quite lightweight at 130 grams.
The Nexus 5's edges are less curved and its corners less rounded compared to other phones, including the Nexus 4. The phone is available in Black and White colour variants and we got a Black one as our review unit.
The 4.95-inch full-HD display dominates the front of the Nexus 5, and there are no hardware buttons. A round LED notification light is placed below the display, while the sensor array and the front camera sits above it.
The right edge of the Nexus 5 features the Power/ Screen lock and the Micro-SIM card tray, and the left edge features the volume rocker key. All the keys are made of ceramic and offer decent tactile feedback.
The 3.5-mm headset jack sits at the top edge of the Nexus 5, while the Micro-USB port and speaker grill sits at the bottom edge.
As we mentioned, the back of the Nexus 5 sports a matte soft touch finish giving it a good grip. It is a bit susceptible to smudges, though. The rear features an 8-megapixel ring shaped camera lens and the LED flash, apart from LG and Nexus branding.
Display
The Nexus 5 comes with an IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and pixel density of 445 ppi. The display comes with Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 protection making it resistant to scratches.
In our use, we found the Nexus 5's screen to be very bright, with text and images looking crisp and sharp. Colours looked vivid and not oversaturated like they look on AMOLED display though blacks don't look very deep.
The screen delivers great viewing angles, though it was a little reflective. Sunlight legibility was good though the screen brightness levels could be better.
Overall, the Nexus 5's display is one of the best in its class.
Software/ User Interface
The Nexus 5 is the first smartphone to ship with Android 4.4 KitKat, the latest release of the operating system. As with all Nexus devices, the phone includes the stock build of the operating system, without any additional UI skinning.
Android 4.4 KitKat on the Nexus 5 features a number of visual changes including a new launcher, making the interface even more minimalistic. It sports flatter design elements, muted colours in status icons, transparency, and smoother transition animations.
With Android 4.4 KitKat, you can now have as many home screens as you want by simply dragging an icon or placing a widget on a new one. After enabling Google Now, Google's smart assistant that fetches information and offers updates based on your data and usage behaviour, you'll see that the left most home screen would be Google Now pane with information cards and a search bar. The screen can also be invoked by swiping up the screen from the Home button. The Google search bar with the voice search icon is present on all home screens and cannot be removed.
Interestingly, you can also initiate voice search from the Nexus 5 when it's in the unlocked state by simply saying, 'Ok Google.' The option is only available when you choose US English as the default language option in the Google Now app's settings, though. With this change, Google search is integrated deeply with the phone.
The launcher has been revamped with icons looking bigger than their Jelly Bean avatars and dots are used to indicate the pagination in the home screen and app launcher, similar to iOS.
When you launch the KitKat app launcher or go back to the home screen, you'll notice a smooth fly away animation.
The app launcher now only features app icons and gets rid of widgets. Due to the larger icons, you'll see a 4x5 grid instead of a 5x5 grid.
Long pressing on the home screen brings up the menu to change the Wallpapers, Widgets and Google Now settings. The choice of default still wallpapers, live wallpaper and custom wallpapers are now available under a single menu.
The KitKat notifications tray features notifications that can be expanded by using two finger pull. It also features buttons for clearing all notifications and for displaying toggles for Brightness, Settings, Wi-Fi, Network, Battery, Aeroplane Mode, Bluetooth, Location settings and Alarm clockAndroid 4.4 KitKat also includes an immersive mode that hides the status and navigation bars offering a full screen experience in apps. Apps like Google Play Books already support this mode and developers can choose to enable it for their apps. The OS also allows developers to display semi-transparent navigation and status bars. We've not seen any apps that take advantage of this feature, however.
Android 4.4 also includes a revamped Phone app that now automatically prioritises your contacts based on the people you talk to the most. When you first launch the app, you'll see a screen that displays a search bar, a place where most frequently called contacts and favourites are displayed and shortcuts to launch all contacts, the dialling pad, call history and settings.
You can also search for nearby places and businesses, contacts, or people in their Google Apps domain directly from the search bar.
If you receive a call from a phone number that is not saved in your contacts, the Android 4.4 KitKat-based Nexus 5 will look for matches from businesses with a local listing on Google Maps.
We felt that the new Phone app could be a little overwhelming for some as it's not very intuitive when it comes to describing what the shortcut keys do. However, the search feature packs in an online phone directory in the app. It will even fetch numbers for users who've registered their phone numbers with Google. The number identification feature also works for incoming calls eliminating the need for apps like Trucaller.
Camera
The Nexus 5 sports an 8-megapixel rear camera with Optical Image Stabilisation, and a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera. The phone features the stock Android 4.4 Camera app with 4 default shooting modes - Still, Video, Panorama and Photo sphere (360-degree).
Similarly, in the Video mode, you can change video quality settings (1080p, 720p or 480p), Time lapse, Exposure settings and Flash. We have to say that we're no fans of the nested arc shaped settings toggles and find the app a bit unintuitive.
Putting the camera of the Nexus 5 to test, we observed that images taken outdoors during daylight came out a tad brighter. However, there are a number of issues with the phone's camera that we encountered in our use. We observed that auto-focus is not consistent, and focusing manually takes time resulting in images being different from what we desired. We also observed that there was a slight lag between the time we fired the shutter and when the phone captured the image.
Comparing images with the ones taken with an iPhone 5 in the same settings revealed that the white balance on the Nexus 5 camera (in the default mode) is skewed towards the warmer end of the spectrum. Low-light shots were also not up to the mark and had noise.
The camera does a good job for shooting videos and supports 1080p video capture.
The 1.3-megapixel front shooter does a decent job for video calling and taking self clicks. It supports 720p video capture.Overall, the Nexus 5's camera is underwhelming at best. We hope Google pushes out a software update to fix the focus issues and shutter lag.
Performance/ Battery Life
The Nexus 5 comes with top of the line hardware (at this point in time), as it is powered by a quad-core 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM, and an Adreno 330 chip for processing graphics. Our review unit had 32GB of built-in storage (a 16GB variant is also available), out of which 26.7GB is available to the user. The phone doesn't offer a microSD card slot for expandable storage.
The overall experience of navigation through the Nexus 5's interface was extremely impressive, thanks to all the power under the phone's hood and the UI being devoid of unnecessary bells and whistles such as transition effects.
We did not experience any lag at all while launching apps, playing games, scrolling web pages or switching between apps on the Nexus 5. The gaming experience on the Nexus 5 was pretty good with games like Temple Run 2, Subway Surfers, Shadow Gun: Dead Zone and Asphalt 7 running without encountering any issues.
We were able to run a number of video formats except for full-HD MOV and AVI through the native video player on the Nexus 5. We also experienced some issues with audio while playing an MKV format video. This was easily fixed by downloading a third-party video player. The phone then plays full-HD videos without any issues.
The speaker on the Nexus 5 is another pain point. It delivers below average quality sound at high volume levels and the sound gets distorted. However, the speaker grill is located at the bottom edge so the sound doesn't get muffled when the phone lies on its back.
Notably, the Nexus 5 doesn't include FM radio functionality.
Call quality was good on the Nexus 5, and we were able to receive cellular signals even in low signal areas.
The Nexus 5 comes with a 2300mAh battery, and in our usage, it lasted us just about a day with medium usage, including 1-1.5 hours of phone calls, two e-mail accounts with push notifications, playing some music, clicking a few pictures, Twitter notifications and WhatsApp chats.
It's worth pointing out that we had mostly used 3G data with intermittent use of Wi-Fi and had put the phone's screen brightness at the highest level. Altering these settings might help in running the phone for a longer duration, depending on your usage pattern.
Verdict
The Nexus 5 is one of the best Android smartphones that you can buy for under Rs. 30,000. Powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor, and 2GB RAM, the phone ticks all the right boxes in terms of hardware specifications. Since it's a Google experience device, you're always assured of regular software updates (at least for the 18 months promised period).
These two big factors do partially offset the main disadvantages of the phone, namely its mediocre camera, lack of external storage support and underwhelming battery backup. Google may or may not bring a software fix to resolve the issues (if these are due to the software limitations) but even assuming that this is not the case, the starting price of Rs. 28,999 makes the Nexus 5 a great deal. We can't think of a phone in this price range that delivers the same value.
Price: Rs. 28,999