The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been investigating Silk, the web browser built into Amazon’s new Android-derived Kindle Fire. Silk is billed as being a very fast browser, thanks to acceleration achieved by funneling all requests through Amazon’s cloud servers. This may speed up network sessions, but it creates many privacy questions, since it means Amazon gets a view into your network sessions that it wouldn’t otherwise have — a copy of all the web-pages you receive. But as Dan Auerbach reports, Amazon made some very good privacy choices in the design of Silk. First, the “acceleration” is user-configurable, and you can just turn it off if you’re worried. Further, SSL connections are never intercepted, and Amazon only lightly logs your network sessions, and expires those logs after 30 days. The service isn’t perfect, but it’s got a lot to recommend it. It is good that Amazon does not receive your encrypted traffic, and does not record any identifying information about your device. And there are other benefits to user privacy that can result from cloud acceleration mode. For one, the persistent SPDY connection between the users tablet and Amazons servers is always encrypted. Accordingly, if you are using your tablet on an open Wifi network, other users on that network will not be able to spy on your browsing behavior. Amazon does not act like an anonymizing proxy, because it does not shield your IP address from the websites you visit or strip unnecessary information out of the outgoing request. Indeed, because the XFF header is set for HTTP requests, your IP is still passed through to the websites you visit. Other headers, such as the HTTP referer header, are set as normal. Thus, the website you are visiting using Silk has access to the exact same information that it would if you were using a normal browser.

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EFF: "We are generally satisfied with the privacy design of Silk"

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been investigating Silk, the web browser built into Amazon’s new Android-derived Kindle Fire. Silk is billed as being a very fast browser, thanks to acceleration achieved by funneling all requests through Amazon’s cloud servers. This may speed up network sessions, but it creates many privacy questions, since it means Amazon gets a view into your network sessions that it wouldn’t otherwise have — a copy of all the web-pages you receive. But as Dan Auerbach reports, Amazon made some very good privacy choices in the design of Silk. First, the “acceleration” is user-configurable, and you can just turn it off if you’re worried. Further, SSL connections are never intercepted, and Amazon only lightly logs your network sessions, and expires those logs after 30 days. The service isn’t perfect, but it’s got a lot to recommend it. It is good that Amazon does not receive your encrypted traffic, and does not record any identifying information about your device. And there are other benefits to user privacy that can result from cloud acceleration mode. For one, the persistent SPDY connection between the users tablet and Amazons servers is always encrypted. Accordingly, if you are using your tablet on an open Wifi network, other users on that network will not be able to spy on your browsing behavior. Amazon does not act like an anonymizing proxy, because it does not shield your IP address from the websites you visit or strip unnecessary information out of the outgoing request. Indeed, because the XFF header is set for HTTP requests, your IP is still passed through to the websites you visit. Other headers, such as the HTTP referer header, are set as normal. Thus, the website you are visiting using Silk has access to the exact same information that it would if you were using a normal browser.

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EFF: "We are generally satisfied with the privacy design of Silk"

In a move that should come as no surprise to anyone except the very, very old who still can’t believe electric car windows exist, Amazon announced its color-screen Kindle today, the $200 Fi-ya (technically ‘Fire’, but I like to say it like that). People are speculating how much it’s going to affect iPad sales EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE SPECULATING WHERE THEIR NEXT MEAL IS COMING FROM. Priorities, folks, that’s the really lesson here. Haha, I’m teaching — I’m actually doing it! *soaks pants in front of class* FUFUFUFUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Product highlights: 7″ multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and anti-reflective treatment, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors. Dual-core processor running Android Own Amazon Silk web browser, Flash support 14.6 ounces (9/10-lb) 8GB internal storage. Enough for 80 apps, plus either 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books. Free cloud storage for all Amazon content Up to 8 hours battery life of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback Wi-Fi only I’ve never actually owned a Kindle. I like book-books. Something about the smell and being able to wipe boogers between the pages. Amazon is also releasing a new and improved 6″ ‘vanilla’ Kindle for $79, and two 7″ touchscreen versions for $99 and $150 (3G). What they are NOT releasing is the collection of nudie photos I took of myself and tried to sell in their app store for a million dollars. YOU DIRTY COMMIE CENSORS! Amazon Product Site Thanks to everyone who sent this for thinking I must live under a rock or something. BURN! No but seriously, keep those tips coming.

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Amazon Officially Announces Color Kindle

A teen has filed a class-action lawsuit against Amazon for remotely deleting a copy of George Orwell’s ‘1984′ off his Kindle without his knowledge or the right to do so. Justin D. Gawronski, 17, “now needs to recreate all of his studies,” alleges the complaint filed Thursday in Seattle by the law firm KamberEdelson, LLC. Gawronski took copious notes using the Kindle that were linked to particular passages in the book, the court document says, and while those notes are still accessible, they are useless without the passages they reference. Amazon has apologized for remotely deleting copies of 1984 and another Orwell novel, Animal Farm, in mid-July without informing customers. Jay Edelson, the lead attorney in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the plaintiffs “appreciate Amazon.com’s new-found contrition, but words are not enough. Amazon.com had no more right to hack into people’s Kindles than its customers have the right to hack into Amazon’s bank account to recover a mistaken overpayment.” Now I’m not saying Amazon should have done that, but I am saying that Justin is pretty lazy for not just going back through the book and finding the passages again. Not that it matters anyways because I’m pretty sure this is just a sorry excuse for not having your homework ready on time. But seriously, one time my dog really did eat my homework. And by homework I mean weed. Amazon sued for wrecking teen’s Kindle work [msn] Thanks to Laura and Joemo, who would have just sent their teacher a corrupted file like a normal person.

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Teen Suing Amazon For Deleting Book From Kindle, Or, Why I Don’t Have My Homework

Rob posted his review earlier today after getting his hands on Amazon’s latest e-reader, the $489 Kindle DX: “Though based on the Kindle 2, it’s the first version that seems a beautiful thing… That said, Amazon’s weird pay-to-play online service for converting file formats is still a black mark against Kindles of any size–especially when you pay $480 for the hardware.” Here’s what others are saying… • Wired’s Steven Levy likes the improvements, but thinks the price isn’t quite right . • Gizmodo found the inclinometer useful for PDFs . • The NYT’s take: “For those of us who don’t need to read PDFs or, say, all 1,328 pages of ‘Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies,’ the regular Kindle should suffice .” • Walt Mossberg at the WSJ would prefer ” on-screen touch controls that could instantly adapt to its size and orientation.” • Ed Baig at USA Today didn’t see any major differences with the speed at which pages refresh; he did enjoy the big screen, but not the price . • Engadget unboxed the thing and found a “less comfortable keyboard.” • CNET decided the DX’s “larger chassis has its pluses and minuses .” • Early Amazon user reviews are posting, too: 4 out of 5 stars based on 20+ reviews thus far.

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Amazon Kindle DX Review Round-Up

Verdict : The DX is the king of readers, and regular book buyers will love it. Native PDF support is slick and speedy. That said, Amazon’s weird online service for converting file formats is still a black mark against it, especially given the $480 tag. Were it not for its price, Amazon’s Kindle DX would render the older models obsolete: the standard model might be a better form factor for reading novels, but the DX’s huge display and relatively small bezel and keyboard make it more attractive, more readable and better able to present large documents. Native PDF support (there’s no zooming) deprives Sony’s Reader of its last technical advantage over the Kindle lineup. At the new size, the Kindle looks well-designed, simple, even sexy: a third of an inch thick, it has 3G wireless access to the Kindle Store, 16 shades of gray, 3.3GB of storage, auto-rotation, text-to-speech (if permitted by the publisher) and the experimental web browser. For those who just buy books and mags, and who don’t plan on reading stuff from their computer, the DX’s combination of best-of-class hardware and Amazon’s well-stocked store make it the one to own. For the rest of us, however, its format support remains a pain: if you don’t like PDF or plain text, you’re tied up in an irritating file conversion service: at $480, the DX is quite expensive enough. If you’re not sure about it because of the bigger size, check out our gallery of the Kindle DX alongside everyday items . Though based on the Kindle 2, it’s the first version that seems a beautiful thing . Update : Testing PDF for speed and compatibility, I tried a 2.4MB PDF of ” All you can eat: autophagy in neurogeneration of neuroprotection ,” by Phillipp Jaeger and Tony Wyss-Coray. It loaded in 3-4 seconds, with 1 second transitions between pages — same as plain text! Nothing in the document confused it, layout was good, including charts, pictures, superscript and greek letters, etc. Hilbert’s Foundations of Geometry , full of pointy-headed Tex-set equations, was just as snappy.

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Review: Kindle DX

Periscope manages to take the clean lines of the Amazon Kindle 2 and wrap it in more leatherette straps and pockets than that time we accidentally started sending the S&M catalogs to the Accounts Payable department. But hey, at least there’s a light. It’s $50.

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Periscope Lighted Folio for Kindle 2