Find: iPad's domination of tablet traffic grows, but does Amazon care?

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iPad's domination of tablet traffic grows, but does Amazon care?

During his keynote speech for the release of the iPhone 5, Apple CEO Tim Cook poked fun of competitors in the tablet space with a few pie charts. While the iPad's market share in the tablet space has reportedly slipped to about 65 percent, Cook noted that iPads still make up 91 percent of web traffic from tablets. "I don't know what these other tables are doing. They must be in warehouses or on store shelves, or maybe in someone's drawer."

Onswipe, a New York startup which helps publishers optimize their sites for touch enabled devices, has just released some new data, and it turns out Apple's lead could be even bigger than Cook boasted. The measurements are taken from 8.5 million unique visitors across the more than one hundred...

Find: Silk browser on Kindle Fire HD adds faster page loads, Trending Now list

Everything you surf to is recorded on amazon's silk browser, at least in sum. Opera does something similar. In exchange, faster browsing. 

Silk browser on Kindle Fire HD adds faster page loads, Trending Now list

Amid all the excitement about its new Kindle Fire HD devices yesterday, one thing Amazon failed to mention is the new version of its Silk browser installed on the tablets. There are a number of meaningful improvements in the update, like better support for HTML5 web standards and an improved UI, but the biggest difference is speed — "at least a 30 percent reduction in page load latency," according to the company.

Silk is a so-called "split" browser, using Amazon’s servers to compress and simplify websites before they’re served to the user. While it speeds up the browsing experience, it also means Amazon can see anonymized data about the pages its users are accessing. As pointed out by TechCrunch, the updated version of Silk adds a...

Find: Amazon launches rental service for paper textbooks

Amazon launches rental service for paper textbooks

Juggernaut Amazon is striking another blow at the traditional textbook industry by offering semester-long rentals of physical books. The listings for a number of textbooks now include a "rent" option that's usually around $50 for a title that sells for $170. According to Amazon's FAQ, the books are rented out by the semester (counted as 130 days), with one 15-day extension allowed. Textbooks are shipped at standard prices, and the cost of returning them is paid by Amazon. Depending on their luck, renters might receive a book that's new or one that's gently used.

Ebay's Half.com and other sites rent textbooks at roughly similar prices, but Amazon's ubiquity means it's likely to make the practice more mainstream. While Amazon also offers a...