Amazon Adds A 'Mayday' Button To The Kindle Fire To Help Technophobes Make Their Tablet Work

Amazon unexpectedly updated the Kindle Fire line this morning.

The big new feature Amazon added to the Fire is a "Mayday" button, which offers live on-screen video customer support 24 hours a day.

In an interview with the Verge, CEO Jeff Bezos calls it, "the greatest feature we've ever made."

Here's how it's supposed to work. In the settings, there's a button you can hit. It takes you to live video support. A person pops up on the screen. You can see the person, but they can't see you. That person can see your device and what's on the screen.

The idea is to help people that are new tablet computing figure out how to use their device. Or if there's a problem with the device, they can get the live video help.

Amazon doesn't have physical retail locations like Apple, with its Genius Bar helpers. So, this is Amazon's solution for helping people with their Kindle Fires.

There are some privacy concerns since the person looking at your computer can access your passwords, and pretty much your entire device. Amazon says it will thoroughly vet anyone it hires for the customer service job.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.