Bookmarks for December 6th through December 12th:
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The Kindle Fire
Since then I’ve been able to spend several hours on the device. I’ve let a 7 year old and a 4 year old use it. 
I am not going to recommend or not recommend the device. It really comes down to your needs and expectations of such a device. For me personally it does have some pros and cons. I’ll go ahead and get them out of the way.
Things I like about the Kindle Fire
Things I Dislike about the Kindle Fire
Some of that seems redundant I realize. How can weight be a plus and minus? When I first took the device out of the box, I noticed its weight right away. It felt sturdy and tough. The device is small enough that it’s easy for me to hold it with one hand. It doesn’t take long for the weight of the device to become apparent when holding it with one hand. My biggest gripe with the device at this moment is the ease with which purchases can be made. With two kids in the house it becomes even more bothersome. At times the interface can seem to lag a little but nothing horrible.
The device has been put through the paces at my house. Books have been read on it, movies have been watched on Amazon Prime and Netflix, the Pandora app gets a lot of use, and the web browser has been put through its paces too.
For myself and my family this device is a good fit and serves nicely as a second tablet. I tried hard not to compare it to the iPad, as an iPad competitor I believe it fails miserably. But as a second tablet for consuming media and at $200 it’s a no brainer for me.
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Bookmarks for December 6th:
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There have been a lot of questions lately about whether or not Carrier IQ is installed on BlackBerry devices.
Unless your BlackBerry is on T-Mobile you are safe.
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This post is a follow up to the original Carrier IQ post from yesterday.
Since posting that, the flood gates have opened up regarding Carrier IQ.
Apple claims that it has removed Carrier IQ from some of its iOS 5 devices. To be sure you can follow these directions for turning it off:
Carrier IQ: How to Disable Tracking on Your iPhone
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Links of interest for November 30th through December 1st:
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By now you have most likely heard about Carrier IQ. Carrier IQ is a basically a root kit installed on your phone that has the potential to track everything you do. Carrier IQ recently put up a media alert, you can read it here (PDF).
According to LifeHacker:
Last week, 25-year old Eckhart discovered a hidden application on some mobile phones that had the ability to log anything and everything on your device—from location to web searches to the content of your text messages. The program is called Carrier IQ, and unlike the Android malware that’s been causing such a stir, it actually comes preinstalled by the manufacturer of your phone. In fact, you can find it on a bunch of different devices, including Android, Nokia, and BlackBerry phones. It’s what’s known as a rootkit—a program with massive amounts of privileges that hides its presence from the user. It was originally designed to log things like dropped calls and bad data connections for troubleshooting purposes, but manufacturers like HTC and Samsung have modified it to run in the background, completely undetectable, with no option to opt out of its “services”. At best, it slows down your phone, and at worst, anyone on the other end of the application could, in theory, read your text messages, see what you search on the web, and much more.
Removing Carrier IQ?
Removing Carrier IQ is tough. 
It will require installing a custom ROM on your phone. You can remove it on your Android phone by downloading the Logging Test app and then going and purchasing the licensed pro version.
For More Information
Trevor Eckhart Part 1 and Part 2.
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Links of interest from November 30th:
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Amazon just announced that the Kindle Fire is shipping today.
“We’re thrilled to be able to ship Kindle Fire to our customers earlier than we expected. Kindle Fire quickly became the bestselling item across all of Amazon.com, and based on customer response we’re building millions more than we’d planned,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “Customers are excited about Kindle Fire because it is a premium product at the non-premium price of only $199.”
Kindle Fire offers customers a fully-integrated service with instant access to over 18 million movies, TV shows, magazines, newspapers, books, songs, apps and games, including:
- Over 100,000 movies and TV shows from Amazon Instant Video
- Over 17,000,000 songs from Amazon MP3
- Millions of books
- Over 400 full-color magazines and newspapers
- 100 exclusive graphic novels from DC Comics, including Watchmen, the bestselling graphic novel of all time
- Several thousand apps and games, including Netflix, Pandora, Hulu Plus, Rhapsody, and games from Electronic Arts, Zynga and Rovio
- A free month of Amazon Prime, which offers two-day shipping and access to nearly 13,000 movies and TV shows available to stream at no additional cost and exclusive access to over 5,000 popular books from the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library to read on any Kindle device at no additional cost and with no due dates
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Amazon released more Kindle Fire
From the press release:
When Kindle Fire customers across the country open their boxes next week, they will be able to choose from several thousand of the most popular Android apps and games, including Netflix, Rhapsody, Pandora, Twitter, Comics by comiXology, Facebook, The Weather Channel and popular games from Zynga, EA, Gameloft, PopCap and Rovio. Kindle Fire customers will be able to download these apps and games without having to register multiple times and using Amazon’s simple and secure 1-Click payment technology. Plus, all apps are Amazon-tested on Kindle Fire for the best experience possible, customers can get a great “paid” app for free every day, and once you’ve downloaded an app from the Amazon Appstore, it’s available on Kindle Fire as well as your other Android-based devices.
I’ve had a Kindle Fire
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