Amazon's ever-struggling Fire Phone gets a lukewarm update

Amazon isn't ready to turn its back on the Fire Phone just yet. It got a big update on Friday that adds a host of new functions.

The phone's Firefly feature now allows it to recognize more than 2,000 famous paintings using information from Wikipedia, and text translation is now available for English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Another addition is Best Shot, which takes a picture just before and just after you press the shutter button in the camera app. That means each time a picture is taken, you'll have three options to choose from.

The update comes with a few more typical fixes, too. It improves battery life, according toAmazon, and now allows users to add custom ringtones, as well as block phone numbers. You have dozens of keyboard languages to choose from and download.

This could be Amazon's second chance to become a real player in the smartphone market. In the face of competition from iPhones and Android devices, the Fire Phone has repeatedly struggled to catch on. Amazon has cut the phone's price — more than once.

Originally, the phone was $649 without a contract and $199 with a contract. In September, Amazon slashed the contract price from $199 to just $0.99.

"We didn’t get the price right,” Amazon Senior Vice President of Devices David Limp told Fortunein October. “I think people come to expect a great value, and we sort of mismatched expectations. We thought we had it right. But we’re also willing to say, ‘we missed.’ And so we corrected.”