The Nook Simple Touch doesn’t get enough love – it’s a portable, long-lasting touch sensitive e-reader for a hundred bucks. Oh, and it runs Android, with an active community of ROMs and mods behind it. And according to some leaked material from manufacturer Barnes and Noble, its one weakness may soon be put to rest. The Digital Reader found a pamphlet for a new version of the Nook Simple Touch, with an integrated “Glowlight” – a front-mounted LED that lights up the black and white e-ink screen at night. These styles of screen lights used to be all the rage in the days of black and white phones and Palm Pilots.
The light shouldn’t affect the excellent readability of the e-ink screen, the paper-like qualities of which are the reason that e-readers have remained so popular while tablets continue to drop in price. There’s no word on an official launch or price, but the source says tomorrow. Whether that’s true or not, printed marketing materials means it can’t be too far away. If B&N continues their cost-cutting ways, it’s likely that the upgraded Nook Simple Touch model will have the same $99 price tag.
What does this mean for the e-reader? Not much – it just makes all those book light accessories obsolete, and allows for far more comfortable reader (or, you know, whatever) in the dark. It should be noted that the addition of a light strong enough to successfully illuminate the reader’s screen will drain the battery much, much faster than the device does on its own. With this added functionality and a price likely to remain low, the Nook Simple Touch is looking mighty tempting as an impulse buy modder tablet.
[via The eBook Reader]
It’s already available for preorder. Got an email from BN last night.
I guess all those customers who bought the regular Nook Touch during the Holidays will be “left in the dark”. Those customers will have to buy another Glowing Nook to get the built in light (or use the silly clip on lights)….thanks B&N! We all know you could have pushed out this new technology before the holidays!