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.

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. ®