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Mole sheds light on incoming illuminated Amazon Kindle

No colour reader, though

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 lit-up Kindle could be on sale in July.

Kindle in the dark

Read it in the dark

Whenever the tablet is released, it comes as no surprise, not least because Amazon's US rival, Barnes & Noble, has already announced an e-book reader, the trips-off-your-tongue Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, with an Indiglo-style illumination.

Adding a wee LED lighting strip into the upper bezel would not tax Amazon's engineers. The company's bean-counters wouldn't be troubled by the move, either.

Reuters' source poured cold water on speculation that Amazon has a colour Kindle in the works, saying it's not likely to happen this year. But do expect an 8.9in Kindle Fire in Q4... right in time to compete with the Fire-targetted tablet Google is expected to announce Real Soon Now. ®

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