There are indeed some apps that are non-removable, but the mentioned ones have always been removable using PowerShell.

I don't understand the concern, at least if I'm reading the documentation for the speculative connect API correctly (first link in blurb).

All this seems to do is make the TCP connection (whether SSL or not) in anticipation of a link being clicked. The speculative connect API does not send any data in the TCP pipe it is creating. By opening the TCP link early, once the link is clicked, the TCP connection is probably ready to go, cutting down a bit on setup delay (which can sometimes be substantial if DNS is slow to resolve or the connection is using SSL), thus making the click seem more responsive to the user.

But nowhere in the docs is any mention of actual requests made to the server or any data downloaded from the server... until you click the link. Thus, the only information leaked by hovering over a link but not clicking on it is your externally-known IP address, which may show up in the error logs of the webserver as a dropped connection. There seems to be no danger of accidentally downloading a virus simply by hovering over a click.

If I'm missing something, please let me know.

I have a 3MB Verizon DSL line and the HD indicator on Netflix lights up most of the time. No problems with rebuffering, etc.

I thought a new feature for 11.2 was autoupdate in the background. Did not work for 11.3.

This discount is on the version that you have to hook to your computer in order to update. A single $25 discount seems inappropriate for this devices.

I would rather see a discount on the free-3G/wifi version of the unit. In this product, you get free 3G for life. An ad-supported model makes more sense because you continue to receive a service in exchange for continuing to receive ads. It would also allow them to update those ads more often.

The best solution would be to discount the reader a bit *and* discount each kindle book you buy, say maybe by 10%.

Just a guess, but removing authplay.dll might help mitigate the Reader portion of this exploit. I generally do that after every Reader upgrade because a similar vulnerability happened once before. Besides, who ever uses Flash inside a PDF document anyway?