In Kindle News…

Amazon.com said that the Kindle Fire sold out today. The timing is auspicious, since the next generation of the Kindle Fire is expected to be announced at an event September 6. If you’re one of those people who loves buying technology on the verge of its obsolescence, as I am (I brilliantly bought my own Kindle mere days before last year’s announcement of the new Kindle lineup, spending nearly as much as I would have spent on a Fire), then you can still by Kindle Fires used off of Amazon.

The Verge put up a picture that they say is of the new Kindle Fire. It’s a pretty unremarkable picture, and the site concludes that “there’s no sign that Amazon is shifting its strategy of making the Fire an extraordinarily affordable tablet”–no visible bells or whistles here. A Verge source actually contests whether the picture they put up is in fact of the new Kindle Fire.

Personally, I’m more excited about the possibility that Amazon may be announcing a more basic Kindle with an improved E Ink display. The Verge also turned up an image of what looks like a new Kindle Touch touting some unspecified feature called “Paperwhite.” It would appear that this next-gen Kindle will have a backlight option, much like the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight. Regular readers of this blog know I’m lukewarm on tablets myself (though warming to the idea of buying one myself, if only to shed my iPhone addiction); I’m a big fan of my Kindle, though, which is a constant traveling companion. I’ve been less excited by the Fire, because I’m one of these people who is actually paralyzed by choice. To have multiple books on one device is distracting enough, without the lure of Mad Men episodes to further distract me.

E Ink displays still have the best screens for reading, in my view, and the ability to read them outside is a major bonus. Since I recently moved to a new apartment with an outlet outside, in fact, I’ve occasionally attempted to write on my laptop in my backyard. It’s very difficult to do, and I’m not the first, evidently, to have longed for a laptop with an E Ink screen. If any company’s coming close to producing something like this, it would appear to be Pixel Qi.

Would you ever buy an E Ink laptop?