When Google released the $199 Nexus Seven, buying a Kindle Fire became a mistake. Good thing Amazon is updating its tablet offering next week; as of today, new Fire tablets are no longer available from the retailer.
In order to even tread water in the soon-to-be flooded tablet market Amazon will have to do something their competition isn't. And just about everyone seems to want the same thing: a solid Android tablet that can switch between backlit LCD and reflective E-Ink displays.
A patent application Amazon filed this week seems to indicate they're trying to do just that - by building displays into both sides of a tablet. They're probably a few years away from the technology for a single display that will switch back and forth, but that doesn't mean they can't incorporate both technologies; just look at all that wasted surface space on the back of the iPad and Nexus 7!
The device described in the patent would probably work something like this: you browse the web on the LCD side, and when you come across text you're interested in reading (on, say, IGN) you flip the Kindle over and read it on the e-ink side; when you reach an embedded video, flip back to LCD to view it.
Amazon could announce a Kindle device based on this principle at its press event next week, though more realistically the technology is probably a year or two away.
Would you buy a dual-display tablet? Let us know in the comments.
Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
