THE TECH-LICIOUS

10 useful and innovative Google services you may not know about

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<img alt="Google Mars allows users to explore the Red Planet" height="359" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/google-services.jpg" width="640" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Everyone is familiar with Google's flagship services, like Search, Gmail and Maps. Even blue-sky projects like its </span><a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-project-loon/27955/" style="background-color: white; color: #1e8dd7; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">internet balloon</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> and </span><a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-self-driving-car/32278/" style="background-color: white; color: #1e8dd7; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">self-driving cars</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">are well-known. But there are plenty of remarkable Google services that many people just don't know about. Here, Gizmag looks at 10 of them.</span><br />
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Google Mars</h2>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/pictures#1" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Google Mars allows users to explore the Red Planet" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/google-services.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="529" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Everyone knows that you can find your way around using Google Maps. Fewer realize that Google can also you show you around Mars. <a href="http://www.google.com/mars/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google Mars</a>is a collaboration with NASA researchers at Arizona State University and can show visitors relief, visible and infrared views of the Red Planet. Those who prefer a view of the planet in 3D format can use <a href="http://www.google.com/earth/explore/showcase/mars.html" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Mars in Google Earth</a>, in which images of the planet taken only hours ago can also be viewed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mars is actually just one of the distant places Google can help you explore. Its mapping services also cover <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/moon/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the moon</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/sky/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the solar system</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/views/streetview/oceans" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the oceans</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Google Body</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/pictures#2" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Google Body allows users to explore 3D renderings of the human body" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/google-services-9.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="530" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Google Body is now actually <a href="http://www.zygotebody.com/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Zygote Body</a>, but we're not going to let that get in the way of an interesting article. The software was built by Google and was open-sourced in 2012. Zygote, which provided the imagery for the original Google Body, used the software to build its own version.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Zygote Body provides 3D human models around which users can scroll and zoom. The body can be virtually explored layer by layer or by focusing on certain body parts, such as bones organs or nerves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Google Person Finder</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/pictures#3" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Google People Finder helps people to find family and friends after natural and humanitaria..." src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/google-services-3.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="529" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://google.org/personfinder/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google Person Finder</a> was created as a means of enabling people to reconnect with friends and family after natural and humanitarian crises. It was developed following the the attack on the World Trade Center buildings in 2001 and is part of Google's wider <a href="http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Crisis Response arm</a>. Person Finder has been deployed for use a number of times, including in response to Typhoon Yolanda, the Boston Marathon Explosions, the 2013 Uttarakhand floods and Tropical Cyclone Phailin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Google Cultural Institute</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/pictures#4" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="The Google Cultural Institute showcases exhibits and collections from museums and archives..." src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/google-services-1.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="530" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For lovers of art and culture, the <a href="http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google Cultural Institute</a> provides a wealth of "exhibits and collections from museums and archives all around the world," into which you can delve. As part of its mission to organize the world’s information, Google partnered with hundreds of institutions with a view to hosting the world’s "cultural treasures" online. The Institute aims to preserve the world's cultural creations and make them accessible online now and for future generations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Music Timeline</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/pictures#5" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Music Timeline shows the history of music by genre and artist" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/google-services-5.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="530" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">While it may not be the most sophisticated of Google's creations, the interactive visualization that is <a href="http://research.google.com/bigpicture/music/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google's Music Timeline</a> is still hugely compelling. The graph shows the popularity of music genres relative to each other since 1950. Users can click on genres to drill-down into sub-genre and can click on sub-genres to drill-down further still to significant artists. Hovering over the visualization will map influential albums onto the timeline by year. And of course clicking on an album will take users through to the Google Play store, where they can buy it (how thoughtful of you, Google).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Music Timeline is part of Google's <a href="http://research.google.com/bigpicture/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Big Picture Group</a>, a research group that "explores how information visualization can make complex data accessible, useful and even fun."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Waze</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/pictures#6" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Waze is a community-based traffic and navigation app" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/google-services-8.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="529" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.waze.com/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Waze</a> can't strictly be chalked up as a Google innovation; the search giant bought the navigation startup last year. Nevertheless, it's now Google-owned and the the concept certainly warrants a mention. Waze is a community-based traffic and navigation app available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Users can passively contribute to generating traffic data by running the app during a journey. It's also possible to share reports on accidents, police speed traps or other hazards. The app can then offer up new routes for a user's journey based on historical and real-time data.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">reCAPTCHA</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/pictures#7" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="reCAPTCHA digitizes pre-digital texts while fighting spam" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/google-services-6.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="530" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reCAPTCHA</a> is another Google acquisition. You will know it best as the distorted and skewed pieces of text that you are asked to work out on a website to verify that you are human. People may find them annoying, but often are completely unaware of the secret second life that reCAPTCHA puzzles lead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">reCAPTCHA presents the user with two words that could not initially be read by computers – one that has since been verified and one that has not. By correctly typing both words to gain access to a website, a user both verifies that they are human and contributes to verifying the other word. In this way, the puzzles are used to digitize old printed materials such as books. With around 200 million CAPTCHA puzzles being solved around the world every day, it can make a substantial contribution to bringing old, pre-computer texts onto the Web.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Google Trends</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/pictures#8" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Google Trends allows users to study the search volumes of different terms" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/google-services-7.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="530" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Of all the products or services featured in this article, <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google Trends</a> is probably the best known. It is also probably the one into that can suck most of your time once you start playing around with it. Trends has a simple premise: it allows users to look at the volume of search traffic for particular terms. Users can browse current trending search terms or input their own and compare them against others. For example, did you know that during 2010 and 2011, more people were searching for information about <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-GB#q=/m/0478__m,%20/m/02mjmr&cmpt=q" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Lady Gaga than Barack Obama</a>? You do now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Google Ad Grants</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/pictures#9" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Google Ad Grants provides in-kind AdWords advertising for non-profit organizations" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/google-services-0.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="529" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Most people are familiar with Google AdWords. It's the platform that allows individuals and organizations to pay for ads down the side of a Google results page based on the search term. If you're a non-profit organization, however, you need not necessarily pay. Through its <a href="http://www.google.com/grants/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Ad Grants</a> service, Google offers non-profit organizations US$10,000 per month in in-kind AdWords advertising, to promote their missions and initiatives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Google Helpouts</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/pictures#10" style="background-color: transparent; color: #036eb5; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Google Helpouts connects users with experts in their field for live video lessons" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/google-services-4.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="530" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our final service featured is aimed purely at helping people to learn new skills from experts in their field. <a href="https://helpouts.google.com/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google Helpouts</a> offers video sessions on topics across a range of categories, such as art and music, computers and electronics, cooking and health. Users can browse the categories or search with specific terms and can offer to give their own Helpout sessions as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/google-services-unknown-hidden-gems-under-radar/32629/">gizmag</a></span></div>
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10 useful and innovative Google services you may not know about

Everyone is familiar with Google's flagship services, like Search, Gmail and Maps. Even blue-sky projects like its internet balloon and self-driving carsare well-known. But there are plenty of remark…

21 Jun 2014

Amazing innovation by amazon-THE FIRE PHONE WITH 3D DYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

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<span style="font-size: large;">After what seems like years of rumors, Amazon has announced its first foray into the competitive smartphone space, in the form of the Fire Phone. The largely high-end device packs in some interesting features, chief among which is its Dynamic Perspective display tech and product scanning Firefly app.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The handset sports an industrial design with Gorilla Glass on both sides, and packs a 590-nit 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 display. That comes out to 315 pixels per inch, which should be sharp, but still a ways off the bar set by recent 1080p and 2K handsets. The Fire Phone runs on a quad core 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 CPU backed up by an Adreno 339 graphics processor and 2 GB RAM. The handset features dual stereo speakers, LTE connectivity and a 13 MP rear camera. Buying the device will provide access to unlimited Amazon Cloud Drive storage for photos.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The smartphone features four front-facing cameras, which track your gaze to provide stereo vision no matter how you hold the handset. It’s not immediately clear how the feature will be used, but the company has made the developer kit available, so we’re sure to see some interesting applications as time goes on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Unique features</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">During the announcement event in Seattle, the company didn’t spend long dwelling on specs, but moved on to the software and unique features that the handset offers. Like other Amazon devices, the Fire Phone runs Amazon's heavily customized version of Android known as Fire OS. The UI features a content carousel (as seen on Fire tablets), as well as a more traditional app grid.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/amazon-fire-phone-details-specs/32597/pictures#3" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="The handset packs an unusual Dynamic Perspective features that projects a 3D image in rath..." src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/amazon-fire-phone-announced-2.png" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="530" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One of the most interesting things about the Fire Phone is its Dynamic Perspective feature, which projects a 3D image inwards rather than outwards. The company demoed the feature on maps and images, with impressive results, and users will be able to use it when playing games or browsing (on Amazon of course), where tilting the device will move to the next product.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Another unique selling point for the phone is Firefly, a feature that lets users scan physical products, music and even TV shows, and have them automatically added to their Amazon shopping carts. The Fire Phone even has a physical button dedicated to the service: users will simply hold down the button to begin scanning (and sending Amazon more of their money).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Being an Amazon device, much of the software serves as a portal to the company’s wide selection of media content, including its ubiquitous Kindle eBooks, Instant Video streaming service and the recently launched Prime Music.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/amazon-fire-phone-details-specs/32597/pictures#2" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="The device acts as a portal to Amazon content" src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/amazon-fire-phone-announced-1.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="482" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">However, also like other Amazon hardware, the device won’t have access to the Google Play Store, but makes do with the company’s own app store. The selection in the Amazon Appstore is solid and rapidly growing, but can’t yet compete with Google's and Apple’s offerings. Amazon’s on-device Mayday customer support service, which pops up a one-way video chat box on your device, has made the jump from Kindle Fire tablets to the new phone. Like on the Fire, the Mayday tech support will be free of charge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Lastly, the handset is compatible with Second Screen, allowing users to beam the phone's TV shows and movies to a bigger screen. It will require aFire TV, PlayStation or other Miracast-enabled device.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Small touches</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Amazon was keen to point out how much love has gone into the device’s software, highlighting a few clever features of the handset’s OS.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On the calendar, for example, users can send quick messages to invited contacts by swiping to a panel on the right – a useful feature if you’re running late. Users will also be able to set a timer telling the device to turn off the ringer when they’re in a meeting, and can even set a particular photo album to appear when they swipe to the right of the lock screen. This sounds like a great feature for those keen on showing off their kids.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">From where we stand now, the Fire Phone looks like a very solid looking handset, and is a little more high-end than we were expecting from the company’s first offering in the space. While the ecosystem’s app selection may be a little lacking in comparison to its rivals, the device’s unique features should make it an intriguing new entry to an extremely competitive market.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps the biggest surprise is the Fire Phone's pricing. Amazon's Fire tablets have historically had rock-bottom prices, as they're subsidized by their virtual Amazon shopping mall software. But the Fire Phone is, somewhat surprisingly, ringing up for the same starting price as rival flagships like the iPhone 5s and Galaxy S5.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Fire Phone is exclusive to AT&T in the US, where pre-orders will ship on July 25. You can reserve yours on-contract for US$199 for the 32 GB model and $299 for the 64 GB version. The handset will cost $650 unlocked. All of those prices, for a limited time, include a year of Amazon Prime membership.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">SOURCE-<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/amazon-fire-phone-details-specs/32597/">GIZMAG</a></span></div>
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Amazing innovation by amazon-THE FIRE PHONE WITH 3D DYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

After what seems like years of rumors, Amazon has announced its first foray into the competitive smartphone space, in the form of the Fire Phone. The largely high-end device packs in some interesting…

20 Jun 2014

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