Amazon's New Silk Browser Gets Speedy Mobile Browsing Via the Cloud

From DailyTech: Earlier today Amazon, Inc. pulled the wraps off its long-awaited multimedia tablet, branded "Fire". The catchy name was backed by a bargain $199 price (TouchPad, what?) and solid hardware -- a dual core processor and all the essentials. With that tablet came a brand new slick browser, which offers an improved version of a seldom-seen feature that could offer a big browsing edge for Amazon's tablet over rival designs.

One intriguing thing about the tablet is that it's not a standard build of Android. The tablet forked off of Android before (!) the Android 2.1 build. That means that Amazon has cooked in its own implementations of multi-touch and GUI features, independent of Google's updates (Android 2.1 "Eclair", Android 2.2 "Froyo", and Android 2.3 "Gingerbread"). Amazon.com will continue to maintain its own operating system branch on the Android tree.

A possible benefit of this approach is that the tablet may be less susceptible to malware, while still enjoying full compatibility with apps in Amazon.com's "App Store for Android." And Amazon.com gets to pocket its cut of app sales revenue, rather than Google.

A third benefit of the unique approach is that it gives Amazon.com the opportunity to revisit core software and find ways to differentiate it from rival Android tablets, as well as other competitors like Apple, Inc. A perfect example of that redesign/refine paradigm is Amazon.com's new Silk browser, the Fire's primary browser.

The new browser is available only for the Fire. It will not be available (not yet, at least) on other Android tablets.

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