Michael's Insight: Amazon to use new Silk browser on Kindle Fire tablet

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Michael S. Willner spent his entire career in the cable television industry. He co-founded Insight Communications in 1985 and served as its CEO, a director and vice chairman of the board until the company was sold to Time Warner Cable in February, 2012.

As a young boy in Miami, Florida, Michael had a fascination with the television business at a very early age. He often rode his bicycle to the local NBC affiliate after school where the staff allowed him to help out in the studio while they produced and aired a live children's puppet show and the local news. Michael began his career in 1974 as the program director and news reporter for a small suburban New York cable system after graduating from the Boston University College of Communications. Soon after, he shifted his focus to general management and eventually became the chief operating officer of Vision Cable Communications, a cable company owned by a division of Newhouse Newspapers.

After starting Insight Communications, Michael quickly developed his hands-on style of management as CEO. He is a firm believer in open, honest communication. He personally ensured that employees and customers were always well-informed and had input and influence over important Company decisions. This commitment led to a secondary career - that of a leading man in a number of Insight television commercials in which he comfortably played himself with a great sense of self-deprecating humor.

Michael also became very active in industry affairs and has been one of cable's most active and effective ambassadors on Capitol Hill, testifying regularly before Congress on industry issues and pending legislation. He has served two consecutive terms as chairman of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), the cable industry's trade lobby and currently served on its executive committee for many years. Michael also served as chairman of the board of the Cable Center from 2007 through 2011. He served on the executive committee of CableLabs; on the board of directors of C-SPAN, and the Walter Kaitz Foundation.

A recipient of the NCTA's 2004 Vanguard Award for Distinguished Leadership and a 2005 inductee into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, Michael has yet to achieve his greatest goal of winning an Emmy for his leading role in Insight's commercials.

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Amazon to use new Silk browser on Kindle Fire tablet

Amazon Will Benefit From Silk More Than Its Customers Will [Silicon Alley Insider]

In the midst of Wednesday's Kindle Fire release was the announcement that the tablet would run a new web browser from Amazon named Silk.

Silk is being marketed as a cloud-based browser because it pulls web pages that are already pre-loaded on Amazon's servers. This makes the browser faster for the end user avoiding loading web page components from the open Internet.

Not only does this have potential speed benefits for Fire users, but it also has enormous benefits for Amazon and its e-commerce business. With all Kindle Fire users' traffic flowing through its own servers, Amazon can aggregate data about what Fire users are buying online, as well as the sites from which they're buying.

It's unclear whether Amazon will provide users with options other than the Silk browser. Kindle Fire users will be able to load third-party applications from the Amazon marketplace, but Amazon must approve those apps.

Posted at 09:37 PM in Broadband Internet | Permalink

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You can disable it Mike and run it like a standard browser. Of course they don't recommend it :)