silk

Wireless tooth tattoo can detect bad bacteria

Some tech just sounds too good to be true. A removable, wireless sensor that adheres to dental enamel and can detect trace amounts of harmful bacteria just might fall into the too-much-information category for the squeamish among us.

But the silk, gold, and graphene-based sensor that looks a bit like a temporary tattoo could play a key role in detecting and treating various diseases and conditions, the developers at Princeton University say.

"This is a real-time, wireless response from a sensor that can be directly interfaced with a variety of biomaterials," principal investigator Michael McAlpine, an assistant professor … Read more

Creating semantic Web sites could be smooth as Silk

You can now build and view a Silk Web site that combines lots of information into one single spot, sparing you and others from searching different places for all that data.

Moving from private to public beta today, Silk is an online application that tries to tap into the "semantic" Web by collecting and displaying information from the Internet, from your own documents, and from other sources. As the folks at Silk describe it, the idea is to let people select "the data they want from the mass of information available, and to view and arrange it … Read more

How to enable Reading View for Amazon Silk on the Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire software update to 6.3 should be rolling out to you any day now, with new features, enhancements, and bug fixes.

One of the new features is a reading view, which allows you to format Web articles to look like an e-book, using Amazon's Silk Web browser. Reading view can make Web content easier to read without all the ads, graphics, and other distractions. Here's how to enable it:

In order for reading view to work, accelerated page loading must first be turned on in the Silk browser settings, if it isn't already.

When … Read more

More than Fire can dress up in Silk

The browser Silk may be native to the Kindle Fire, but one Android developer has discovered a way to transplant it to any rooted Android device, an XDA forum post from the end of December revealed.

If you're an Amazon.com addict but don't have a Fire, Silk could become your go-to browser. Silk is unique because of its "cloud acceleration" ability, which renders Web sites extremely quickly using a combination of the SPDY protocol developed by Google and computing power provided by its own cloud-based servers. Silk is also known for the ability to learn … Read more

How to turn off cloud-accelerated browsing on the Kindle Fire

When the Amazon Silk browser was revealed during the Kindle Fire announcement, digital privacy groups went into overdrive with concerns.

The idea that Amazon's servers would store users' browsing data was disconcerting. But the Electronic Frontier Foundation signed off on Silk, in part, because you can turn off the cloud-accelerated browsing feature. Here's how, in two easy steps:

Step 1: With the browser open, tap the menu button and select "Settings."

Step 2: Scroll down to the Advanced section at the bottom and uncheck "Accelerate page loading."

That's it. Keep in mind that … Read more

Buzz Out Loud: Kindle Fire: your questions answered (Podcast)

The Buzz Out Loud team and Donald Bell get hands-on with the brand-new Kindle Fire and answer all your questions about the device, like Kindle Fire vs. Nook, whether you can side-load apps, and whether Amazon Prime is required for use (hint: no). Check it out!

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iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (320x180) | iTunes (640x360)

RSS (MP3) | RSS (320x180) | RSS (640x360)… Read more

Web-based Kindle format good for comics, kids' books

Amazon has retooled and renamed the format for electronic books, embracing Web technologies and adding better abilities for graphics and complex layouts.

The previous format, Mobi 7, will be replaced by Kindle Format 8, aka KF8, according to an Amazon announcement yesterday.

"As showcased on Kindle Fire, KF8 enables publishers to create great-looking books in categories that require rich formatting and design such as children's picture books, comics & graphic novels, technical and engineering books, and cookbooks," Amazon said in its announcement. "Kindle Format 8 replaces the Mobi format and adds over 150 new formatting capabilities, … Read more

Amazon's Silk browser: Now EFF approved. Really!

The Silk browser was only one of many revelations at Amazon's Kindle event last month, but it was a doozy. Expected to ship initially only on the Kindle Fire in November, Silk promises to learn how you browse and to predict where you're going to surf to next.

That kind of stickiness with your personal data left many security experts and some lawmakers uncomfortable. But the Electronic Frontier Foundation now says it believes Amazon will provide users with the tools to disentangle themselves.

The digital privacy rights group released a report yesterday analyzing several areas of concern it … Read more

Congressman raises privacy concerns over Amazon Silk

Amazon's anticipated tablet, the Kindle Fire, is still a few weeks away from release, and it's raising legal issues and questions in every direction.

Today the Fire's flames are being fanned by the Silk browser, which on the front end is touted as a much faster browser using cheaper hardware because all Web activity is filtered through Amazon's cloud-based Amazon Web Services.

But that has been a hot topic in the last few weeks because, essentially, the Silk Web browser can track everything a user does on the Web and keeps a permanent record.

Now Congress … Read more

Rumor Has It, Ep. 2: Amazon grosses us out (podcast)

We're back this week with another round of juicy rumors, and for once, not one of them is about the iPhone 5. That's because it doesn't exist...yet, but that doesn't stop us from talking about it for a solid 2 minutes (we timed it!).

We changed the rules a little and decided to vote on all the rumors, rather than picking just one. That way we can get more points on the board; remember that the winner at the end of the month gets to make the other person do something embarrassing (as if the "Muffin Top" song wasn't embarrassing enough).

Also this week, Yahoo puts on some lipstick and waits for suitors, and Karyne wonders why; Samsung stirs the rumor pot by sending out an invite for an event where it will announce something big and swoopy; cable providers might fulfill Emily's dreams; and Amazon Silk may just be the grossest name for anything ever. In the entire world.

Check out the show and see which one of us got a point this week (hint: it might not have been fair, but at least one of us is a gentleman about it). And tune in next Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT, when Sharon Vaknin will step in for Emily and bet on her behalf.