Amazon Kindle Fire 2 and backlit Kindle teased in TV ad
Amazon has let loose a new advert that shows off a larger Kindle Fire tablet and a Kindle ebook reader with a backlight, ahead of tonight's launch event.
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Amazon's evidently not content with letting us make up our own wild ideas about what it might be showing off at its launch event this evening -- it's teased what appears to be a larger Kindle Fire tablet and a Kindle ebook reader with backlighting in a new TV advert.
Towards the end of the ad -- shown on a US TV station during an American football match and reported by The Verge -- you can see a lady relaxing in a cosy looking hammock using a tablet that appears to be much bigger than the 7-inch Kindle Fire currently on sale in the States.
The existing Fire has been something of a runaway success for Amazon as its basic design and stripped-down interface allowed it to come with a bargain-basement price tag. The second iteration is expected to have upgraded power and a larger screen, which would make watching long movies much more palatable.
The Kindle Fire is still yet to see a release in the UK and there's no word on whether any new models will ever make their way over here. Rumours have circulated before now that Amazon is planning a UK launch and it makes sense for it to do it sooner rather than later, before the excellent Google Nexus 7 dominates any more of the budget Android market.
Earlier in the clip you can spy a more standard touchscreen Kindle ebook reader, but unlike the existing models, it appears much brighter, with a white background, rather than the current grey, which suggests a backlight is in use. A backlight would allow the Kindle to be read in dim conditions, something the existing model can't help you with.
The joy of E-Ink (the technology used in Kindle screens) however is that without a backlight, the text looks as though it has been printed on paper, making reading for long periods very comfortable -- it doesn't cause eye-strain. The images seen in the clip, however, show a high-contrast screen. That should hopefully keep text looking pin-sharp, but fingers crossed a backlight doesn't alter the pleasant Kindle reading experience.
We'll be keeping up with all of Amazon's announcements tonight, so make sure to keep it CNET UK for all the latest. Let me know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page what you think of a bigger Kindle Fire and whether a backlight on your ebook reader would appeal.