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back to article Mole sheds light on incoming illuminated Amazon Kindle

The E Ink display in Amazon's Kindles may be great for reading in bright sunshine, but it's pants on gloomy days and totally useless in the dark. But that may soon change: Amazon is said to be preparing a front-lit version of the popular e-book reader. Citing a source who claims to have seen the prototype, Reuters reports the …

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  1. Matt Piechota

    B&N not announced, shipping

    A friend recieved her GlowNook last week, so it's shipping not announced. :)

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      why would,

      I want to read in the dark?

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  2. Joe K

    Unlikely

    Why would they do this when their lighted cases go for 50 quid?

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    1. JDX Gold badge
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      Re: Unlikely

      Because they now have competition which is a lot cheaper.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Welll duh....

    "The E Ink display in Amazon's Kindles may be great for reading in bright sunshine, but it's pants on gloomy days and totally useless in the dark"

    Like a paperback you mean?

    The whole point of e-ink is that it's readable like a paperback. That has good points and bad points.

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    1. Dave's Jubblies
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      Facepalm

      Re: Welll duh....

      What, so they should never try to improve it?

      In case you hadn't noticed, a book doesn't require batteries to be charged, and will happily survive a fall downstairs. Many times.

      That would make the book better. But E-reader hold lots of books. That make them better.

      Add light to the e-reader. Better still.

      The whole point of an e-reader is convenience, and to IMPROVE the 'book' experience.

      Progress eh? Gotta love it.

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      1. L.B.
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        Facepalm

        Re: Re: Welll duh....

        Well the other great thing about e-Ink over pads/phones is that it uses naff all battery power, meaning recharges are only needed every 3-5 weeks with daily use.

        Adding a LED light will bring that down a lot if it's used often just as it does for backlit LCD screens.

        Plus a clip-on led light with its own battery can be purchased very cheaply (less than a fiver) for any e-book and they can even be used with real books!

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  4. James 51

    Will be interesting to see if Sony follow suit. It would reduce the bulk of the cover without the need for a built in light.

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  5. AdamWill
    WTF?

    Poppycock

    "The E Ink display in Amazon's Kindles may be great for reading in bright sunshine, but it's pants on gloomy days"

    Er, what? No it isn't. The gloomiest of days I've yet encountered still provides comfortably more than enough natural light to read a book by. Or an e-reader, since as Barry points out, they're almost identical in this regard.

    The dark, yes, you have a point. But a gloomy day? Rubbish.

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