does that really matter though? I’m fine for amazon to see what I buy, and at what price. Hopefully, that means they’ll start selling more of the stuff I like, at good prices, and stop trying to sell me stuff I don’t like, or at bad prices..

Are you also happy for Amazon to know who you bank with and what filthy pr0n you watch?

absolutely. They already know which bank I’m with as I use it to pay for my shopping. Porn? sure, whys it matter. As long as they’re not going to put a poster up outside my house, I’m not bothered. I’m just a tick on a database for them. Microsoft already have access to all that data as I use iexplore to access it, and Virgin Media provide all the networking so they have access to it too, if they want.

Call me a cynic if you will but 3G is there purely to fill Amazon’s bank balance

And everything else they do is for the greater good of humanity, or what? Of course they want their bank balance filled – don’t you?

Microsoft already have access to all that data as I use iexplore to access it

Nope. It don’t work like that.

And everything else they do is for the greater good of humanity, or what? Of course they want their bank balance filled – don’t you?

You obviously missed what I was saying there
IMO the 3G option is of some benefit to users but a lot more benefit to Amazon
It’s not like you taking the optional extra of a great big rear view mirror on your caravan so you can see the queue behind, where the company makes from selling it to you period
With the 3G option Amazon offer, they keep winning all the time you own and use it
It’s the [strike]gift[/strike] sale that just keeps giving for them
They should give you money for taking it 🙂

Apparently HP *may* be releasing some more of their cheap Touchpads (£89 ).

HP employees have been told they can order one each but no more news yet (that I am aware of, but I have been at the hospital all morning and at meetings all day yesterday so may have missed it).

And when Uncle Sam wants to see who’s been reading the wrong books, and then “renders” them to a secret prison in Afghanistan …

And when Uncle Sam wants to see who’s been reading the wrong books

Amazon already harvest and store info such as books you’ve read [even if you didn’t buy them from them], text you may have highlighted etc.
when you connect to their network or have wifi switched on

Why does Amazon keep getting money from the 3G option? They have to pay the people who run the networks, I just assumed it was a loss-leader for them to encourage you to buy a few more books than you might otherwise have bought.

I’ve got the 3G one, and it’s been really useful travelling.

And when Uncle Sam wants to see who’s been reading the wrong books, and then “renders” them to a secret prison in Afghanistan

Er.. d’you think those books are available on Amazon?

Er.. d’you think those books are available on Amazon?

it doesn’t have to come from them for them to see what you have, if you upload books/papers/articles from elsewhere, they still see it.
No real concern as such but a bit creepy nonetheless

Sky actually pay you for that sort of usage data, more precisely, a discount

Er.. d’you think those books are available on Amazon?

Apparently so

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/28/us-prisoner-forbidden-pulitzer-history-book

Not quite the same thing – I doubt a book on slavery is of interest to the anti-terrorist section of the CIA.

It’s nothing to do with the iPad. It’s nothing to do with tablets, even.

Their target market isn’t people who want a small iPad, or an Android tablet, or any of that malarky. Their target market is people who want what this is, which is a colour Kindle. It’s targeted at a current gap in the market which is people who really want a Kindle but are put off by the fact that it’s a monochromatic display.

Ie, it’s aimed at idiots. It completely bypasses most of the primary reasons why you’d want to read an eBook on a Kindle rather rather than a tablet (high contrast screen, viewable in daylight, mahoosive battery life, and all that). They’ve kept the ‘small and light’ form factor (-ish) and bolted on a few extras like cloud-based web browsing (which is a pretty killer app together with their free 3G roaming, if it works) and media playback, but it is first and foremost a book reader. The current Kindle can play mp3s; hands up who uses it for that, then?

Not to say that “if you buy a Kindle Fire, you’re an idiot” – far from it, it has a number of attractive features for the price. All I’m saying is that you’re probably outside of their primary targeted audience if you’re buying it as anything other than a book reader with a colour screen.

Whatever happened to colour eInk? I’m sure we were supposed to have that by now (along with jetpacks and robot butlers).

Ie, it’s aimed at idiots

Not entirely.

Any book with pictures in it looks rubbish on the black and white kindle, as do magazines. I’ve got a lovely book on photography and the pictures all look terrible.

Plus, and this is why Mrs Grips wants one, kids books on a Kindle would be a real life saver and they all look terrible on the b&w screen.

Kids books would be good on it, but one of the Kindle’s USPs is that mono screen
doesn’t matter if you touch it, no fingerprints etc.

kids books on a Kindle would be a real life saver and they all look terrible on the b&w screen.

Point is, there’s many tablets which do that already.

True, but not many are that cheap.

All depends if you can fill it up with pirated content or not (like many people do with e-books) and If Amazon are going to help the police track you down via 3G if you do.

This is pretty much on the money IMO :-

Clicky

Amazon will also be man-in-the-middling all your SSL connections. Not only will they know which bank you’re with, they’ll know how much you get paid and what you spend it on.

If anyone wants to know how much I get paid or what I spend it on they need only ask. Is it supposed to be some sort of secret?

That was just an example. Assuming you use the device for these things, they’ll have full access to your bank account details including login credentials, full access to all your shopping activity, full access to any webmail account you access, etc etc.

But if none of that’s a secret, fill your boots.

samuri – Member
That was just an example. Assuming you use the device for these things, they’ll have full access to your bank account details including login credentials, full access to all your shopping activity, full access to any webmail account you access, etc etc.

No, no they won’t

why not?

Because you can bypass the Silk browser any time you want 🙂

Druidh, how much do you make?

Btw I don’t think Amazon are interested in your bank details and login credentials. Unless they are a massively intricate front for organised crime.. don’t think so though!

molgrips – I’m retired 🙂

I dunno, if I were a massive retail outlet, I’d be extremely interested in what my customers spent their money on.

Druid’s point is valid though, not that the majority of users who buy the device will understand that. They’ll just carry on using Silk.