Amazon aims to launch front-lit Kindle in July

[kdgarris]

Alas, it sounds like there's won't be a self-lit keyboard version; I'm not surprised, but I am bummed. I really don't want to give up my keyboard, but I suppose I need to resign myself to the fact that my next Kindle likely won't have one.

So, while I love the idea of a self-lit Kindle, I won't be an early adopter myself.

[ProfCrash]

Given that no new WiFi only versions of the K3 have been produced in months, this should not be a surprise. I think they are simply waiting for the K3 3G to sell out to remove the model from its list.

[alaskazimm]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I'm always skeptical of new ereader technology. Sony was always trying stuff that sounded cool but usually degraded the screen. Has anyone actually seen and used the new Nook to see if there is any screen degradation? I guess testing the light inside a well lit store would be futile.

I have both and although there is a difference in color that is noticable, it is not significant in my opinion. The text is a bit lighter color but the contrast is not affected. While I can notice the difference, it doesn't bother me. The addition of the light more than makes up for it in my use.

Disclaimer - I am one who has a hard time seeing the difference in regular tv and hdtv so take it for what it's worth. YMMV

[caleb72]

I had already decided to skip the current KT, but a front-lit KT could sway me. I really do like my K3 though.

[hellraiser06]

I dont know how many sites would keep speculating mentioning an "anonymous" highly placed source spilling the beans. this article seems legit though and I hope that they do come out with a light on screen that would not make it less contrasty... At least that way we can hope for a color eink kindle next year since there would be nothing more to do in existent (already perfected except 256 bit greyscale) pearl screen..

[eureka]

Next Kindle will have Cypress TrueTouch controller for capacitive multi-touch and screen with 210 DPI (1024x758).

[mewmartigan]

Originally Posted by eureka

Next Kindle will have Cypress TrueTouch controller for capacitive multi-touch and screen with 210 DPI (1024x758).

Haha, a capacitive touch screen would really bring up all the initial fears of fingerprints/glare/reduced contrast/etc!

And the current Kindle Touch already has multi-touch.

EDIT: limited multi-touch

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by hellraiser06

I dont know how many sites would keep speculating mentioning an "anonymous" highly placed source spilling the beans. this article seems legit though and I hope that they do come out with a light on screen that would not make it less contrasty... At least that way we can hope for a color eink kindle next year since there would be nothing more to do in existent (already perfected except 256 bit greyscale) pearl screen..

256-bit greyscale? That seems a little improbable; I don't believe I've ever seen a display which has more than an 8-bit greyscale display. There would seem little point; it's estimated that the human eye can only discern around 200 shades of grey.

[ProfCrash]

I thought that the ereaders today were 16 grey scale. The K1 was 8 grey scale.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I thought that the ereaders today were 16 grey scale. The K1 was 8 grey scale.

8 bits of colour information provide a total of 256 different colours.
For 16 colours, you only need 4 bits of information.

[hellraiser06]

Originally Posted by HarryT

256-bit greyscale? That seems a little improbable; I don't believe I've ever seen a display which has more than an 8-bit greyscale display. There would seem little point; it's estimated that the human eye can only discern around 200 shades of grey.

Yeah, my bad.. I confused shades of grey with bits. I meant to say that to have a contrast ratio equal to that of real paper, we would need 256 shades of grey, but looks like its only 200. Right now, the kindles (and all other eink devices in their current avatars) are 16.

It was 5 AM here in India at the time I posted.... lol....

[ucfgrad93]

I would like a lighted Kindle like the Nook Glow touch.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I thought that the ereaders today were 16 grey scale. The K1 was 8 grey scale.

They're talking about bits... how many 1s and 0s are used to represent each pixel's (dot) color. Though I think that somebody said bits when they meant shades.

When you say that a screen is an 8 bit display you mean that there are 8 0s and 1s representing its possible shades of gray (or color as the case may be), so:

00000000 --> 11111111

That's a LOT of possible values, 2^8 possible values actually, so 256 different values. A 256 bit screen would allow for 11579208923731619542357098500869000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 [not really all zeros at the end, but the value far exceeds the precision of my calculator, and I put it in standard notation for those who don't know how to read exponent (scientific) notation] possible different colors, so whoever said that obviously didn't mean a 256 bit display.

For a bit more clarity:

1 bit = 0 or 1, so either white or black for each dot.

2 bit = 00, 01, 10, or 11, so four shades, white, black, and two intermediate shades per dot

3 bit = 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111, or 8 possible shades, white, black, and 6 intermediate shades, which is what most previous generation readers supported.

4 bit = 0000, 0001, 0010, 0011, 0100, 0101, 0110, 0111, 1000, 1001, 1010, 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, 1111, so 16 possible values, white, black, and 14 intermediate shades, which is what most modern e-readers support.


Maybe I've strayed too far from the discussion, but I thought I'd help clarify for those who have always wondered what it meant to say "16 bit display", etc... (which your computer's graphics card [or the graphics hardware on your LCD based reader] does support, 16, 24, or even 32 bits per pixel, the details of which I won't go into here)

[ProfCrash]

I need more sugar if I am to understand this stuff (winks)

So not a techno geek here.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I need more sugar if I am to understand this stuff (winks)

So not a techno geek here.

Well, to summarize... your statement was correct (8 shades of gray vs. 16).

I was merely pointing out why there was confusion in the previous comments -- some were talking about bits, and some were talking about shades of gray, plus a nerd lesson since I can't help myself sometimes :-) .