What you need to know
- Amazon plans to release “regular free software updates” for Kindle Scribe throughout 2023.
- The first update arrives on February 27th and includes three new brushes and easier page navigation for notebooks.
- It also adds the ability to create subfolders and move those folders for the first time.
In my review of Amazon Kindle Scribe, I explained that I found the device’s software (especially the note-taking tool) surprisingly simplistic and overly limited. Amazon seems to have taken this type of criticism seriously. That’s because the company plans to roll out improvements and new features to Kindle Scribe sometime in 2023, and introduce new brush styles starting this week.
Until now, Scribe owners could only use pens or highlighters, each with five thickness options. If you install the 2/27 update, you’ll also get a fountain pen, marker, and pencil, each with “enhanced pressure and tilt” detection.
The calligraphy option is useful for taking more dignified notes, while the marker facilitates wide strokes and large drawings. We are most excited about pencils because they help us prove that we are.
image 1 of 2
The next significant change with this update is subfolders. Up to this point, you could only create one organizational level, which made it difficult to neatly group a single notebook topic or better rank notebooks by importance. Now you can organize everything better, move one folder out of another, or into another.
The final update is page navigation. You could already create multi-page notebooks, but you could only move sequentially from one page to the next. It’s a hassle if your notes are particularly long. Now all you have to do is use the “go to page” option and enter the number.
We look forward to seeing what software updates Amazon has in store for us in the future. Wishlists include support for OCR, support for your favorite third-party apps like OneDrive, and an improved note-taking experience for eBooks. However, it’s unclear if such a major change will be preserved in future Kindle Scribe 2s.
This chunky e-ink tablet lets you take low-latency notes on an attractive black-and-white display, as does seamless access to your favorite Kindle e-books. With the promise of future updates, we hope Scribe will start giving Kindle fans an even better experience than ever before.
