Amazon
Update, 5:28 PM: The story has been updated to reflect that the new brush type supports pressure sensitivity.
original: Amazon’s Kindle Scribe is very good hardware, but there are problems with the software. In other words, its operating system was designed with reading in mind, and its writing capabilities feel lackluster compared to write-intensive tablets like the reMarkable 2.
Amazon announced today that it will be “rolling out regular free software updates” for Scribe this year, starting with smaller updates that extend some of Scribe’s existing features.
On the writing surface, the new Scribe update enables fountain pen, marker, and pencil brush types, each with five different thickness options and support for pressure sensitivity. There are also new features for organizing and flipping through your notebooks. Scribe now supports subfolders, allowing you to jump directly to a specific page in a specific notebook like a regular book. time.
Scribe’s software still has a long way to go, but these updates are just the beginning. Its biggest weakness is that it cannot be shared with other devices. You can email individual notebooks to yourself in PDF format, but unlike reMarkable tablets, there’s no integration with cloud storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive. Handwritten annotations on books cannot be viewed on other Kindle devices or apps. Also, the Kindle smartphone or tablet app can view notebooks created with Scribe, but cannot export or modify them. If Amazon could fill some of these feature gaps, it would make Scribe a more compelling productivity device than just a giant e-reader.
