Hmmm....Interesting. This is about the Silk browser on the Fire, which can utilize the cloud to "improve" web browsing.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/amazons-kindle-fire-silk-browser-has-serious-security-concerns/1516

OK, here’s the good stuff about the new Silk Web browser, which Amazon will be embedding in its new Amazon Kindle Fire tablets: From all reports it makes Web-browsing amazing fast on relatively low-end hardware. The bad news? It does it by watching all, and I mean all, of your Web activity through Amazon’s cloud-based Amazon Web Services.

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To be more precise what Amazon will be doing is using the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) to Web proxy. Thus, when you “go” to a site you’re not actually connecting to the site. Instead you’re viewing an EC2-based copy of the site. Local networks use proxy caches all the time to improve local Website performance of commonly accesses sites. While uncommon as a Web browser feature, Silk isn’t the first to use this approach. The credit for this goes to the Opera Web browser.

In addition, and this is one of the neat things about Silk, whenever you visit the site, its content has been optimized for the Kindle Fire. This means you’ll get better video and game performance from Silk than you would with another Web browser on a tablet with the same CPU horses. Last, but not least, so long as you’re on the Web with Silk, Amazon keeps the connection between your Kindle Fire and EC2 open. The net effect of this is to reduce latency and improve connection times.

And, all you have to get all this is to let Amazon see every site you visit on the Web and watch over your ever move. What a deal!

Amazon Silk’s terms and conditions state that Amazon will keep your the Web addresses you visit, the IP addresses you use, and your Kindle Fire’s unique media access control (MAC) addresses for 30 days. With that information, Amazon can track your every Web move.

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Besides even if you did trust Amazon, you have to ask yourself, “Do you trust the U.S. government?” Since Amazon is a U.S. company with American data centers, any data kept on that site would be subject to American law.

As ZDNet’s own Zack Whittaker has reported in detail, thanks to the U.S. Patriot Act, even if you’re a European Amazon user your U.S. cloud-based records are subject to be grabbed by American legal authorities. Or, more mundanely, if your soon-to-be ex-wife, former business partner, whoever wants to check out your Web browsing habits and can get a court order, your EC2 Web history will be opened for their snooping.

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If you’re concerned with online privacy, I simply wouldn’t use the Silk browser in its full mode. To Amazon’s credit, you can opt out of Silk’s cloud-enhanced mode. To quote Amazon, “You can also choose to operate Amazon Silk in basic or ‘off-cloud’ mode. Off-cloud mode allows web pages generally to go directly to your computer rather than pass through our servers. As such, it does not take advantage of Amazon’s cloud computing services to speed-up web content delivery.”

A major perk of the Nook Color is its magazine library. I have a subscription to National Geographic on it, and the pictures particularly look glorious on it.

Haha. Ahh i didn't catch that part; if it turns out a success, a better model would be given for sure. Maybe better yearly models

That's my take on it, too.

It has a shot at being the definitive content consumption tablet, but not having a large enough screen for a ten-finger virtual keyboard is going to limit what you can do with apps on this device. Apple views the iPad as a computing device. Amazon's Fire is still a Kindle; a content delivery device.

I have a personal beef with the Silk browser. It can track every single move you make online. You could opt in to every service and feature that Google and Facebook offer and neither company would know as much about you as Amazon could if you did all your browsing through Silk. It's clear that this "service" is a major reason why Amazon can afford to subsidize the crap out of this device. Some people are cool with trading their privacy for subsidized products, but I just wouldn't want to use a device where customer surveillance is a core function. Even if Amazon allows you to opt out, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Another issue for the Fire is regional restriction. Amazon's warehouse of digital content starts to look like a closet once you leave the US. Up here in Canada, Kindle barely beats iBooks for content availability, and Amazon music and video are MIA. It's not going to do Amazon a whole lot of good if they conquer the US tablet market while competitors secure the rest of the globe.

The last, and most interesting problem, is the war that Google and Amazon are about to wage over Android. I'm not really sure what Google can do to stop Amazon at this point, but you can bet that they'll do whatever they can. Is this the real reason why Google hasn't released the Android 3.x source code?

I think it is a fine device. I would've considered in purchasing it but I just bought the Sony Tablet S; besides, I would pick it over the Nook Color. It's not that I have anything against Nook but I preferred Border's better over B&N and it sucks that Borders went bankrupt.

Anyway, I think it's a pretty good device. It has a great price, and it has the Amazon App Store..The only two main things that kinda irked me a little are: lack of camera, and memory is not expandable (and maybe third being lack of GPS but no biggie)

It's seems to be aimed at a different market segment to other tablets being slightly stripped down on features, ultimately cheap to buy but also a bit more unique for Amazon customers. It should find a significant niche and enjoy at least moderate success.

I'd quite like one but they won't be available in the UK in the forseeable future.

I was quite excited to hear about the Amazon table at first, but now I'm not so sure if it's a buy for me. I already own a regular Kindle and can get over a month's use out of it on one battery charge, where the Fire will supposedly get up to 8 hours (probably less). Plus, there will be no 3G, which will limit where I can use it. And a LCD screen instead of e-ink means reading it in direct sunlight will be a pain. I've also read that Amazon's free TV and movie streaming selection leaves something to be desired. I'm certainly going to keep my eye on it to see how it does, but I probably won't be buying a Fire this holiday season.

Apparently, there's a rumor going around the Internet that a Kindle Fire with 3G will be rolled out about six months after the non 3G one. If so, it might be worth waiting a bit and seeing what happens.