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With the display and
battery life being such strong selling points, you may be surprised to hear
Amazon is experimenting with adding a light source. In fact, Devin Coldewey of
TechCrunch has actually seen a prototype new Kindel in action using a front-lit
lighting method.
The result?
Apparently the E Ink display is lit very evenly and softly. So this isn’t the
same type of light you get from a typical tablet LCD unit. He describes it as a
“blue-white glow” which may seem a bit peculiar, but could work when just viewing
text and on a display lit from the front.
Amazon didn’t develop
this lighting unit itself. It did what all the big tech companies do and bought
itself a company that specializes in the area. In this case it is a relatively
unknown company by the name of Oy Modilis, which Amazon acquired in 2010. They
have patents for lighting, and now it looks like they could be put to good use
in a Kindle.
The one issue I have
with this is why we need a light in the Kindle at all. If you need light to
read your current Kindle you buy a clip on one, or turn on the light in your
room. The fact it is readable in most lighting conditions makes the requirement
of a light at night time a minor inconvenience. And of course, adding a light
means either a bigger battery or reduced battery life. I don’t want my Kindle
to get thicker, and I appreciate the weeks between charges.
I doubt Amazon would
incorporate a light unit unless it really helped with the reading experience,
though. For the moment it remains a prototype, but could well be the major new
feature of the next Kindle. Who knows, it may somehow enable the screen to look
just like paper, and if the system works anything like the Flex lighting
solution it may not hurt battery life too much.
View orginal article here-TechCrunch
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