Pen Enabled Kindle Scribe

Android / Linux E Ink Devices
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21

I desperately want a chisel-edged fountain-pen nib line type.

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I think there are all sorts of ways this could go sideways, so I would just pause and take a breath. LOL.

Maybe there’s no chisel-edge fountain-pen style line option (my absolute favorite with the Remarkable, and something the other current options don’t seem to have). Maybe it won’t be a properly textured screen and it won’t have the tactile feedback we might want it to have. I could easily imagine that. Maybe the OS will be very limited and won’t do the additional things we want it to do. Etc etc.

I’m just gonna wait until Nov and see what reviews are like. Obviously if you want a big Kindle and you also want pen input, this device has a leg up. But you can also get that with the Ratta Note and the Boox lines, which already run Android and have Wacom pen tech with textured screens of various sorts.

Maybe this new Scribe will have a very white screen with higher contrast. That WOULD be very nice, and is a gentle tech limitation of the ReMarkable at the very least.

I dunno. I’m just cautious about the heaven-sent nature of this Scribe device. LOL

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I think this is a bit of a non-issue and I think that you’re overthinking it.

There’s little reason for Amazon or Wacom to go out of their way to change the hardware.

Now, could whatever software Amazon use be coded to ignore pressure information in order to reduce latency and file size (liked your can choose in OneNote)? Sure. It may just be an option (a choice of software pen/brush). That is after all what their competition are doing.

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Actually, the icons look to me to be:

  • ballpoint — basic line
  • chisel-edged marker — for highlighting
  • eraser
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A highlighter tool does make sense.

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Yeah, unfortunately so.

Did think of one other usage, which I’m surprised hasn’t come up yet — mapping/GIS.

A long while back there was a Kickstarter for an e-ink map display unit — I’m pretty sure the Kindle Scribe is much nicer, so will definitely have to look into putting maps on it for hiking and traveling.

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27

Just got answers to a couple of questions about the pen. It is NOT pressure sensitive and all versions of the Scribe have the same digitizer.

Apparently that’s done due to the materials used in the screen including the anti-glare layer.

It does have decently low latency, 9ms, though not quite what Samsung hit with the s22 ultra which does however use some special software to achieve that.

Also it is running a “customized device specific” version of Fire OS 8. Fire OS 8 is based on Android 11 builds.

Last but not least IT WILL NOT allow 3rd party apps, at least at launch, though Amazon is considering it for future updates.

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Colour is often important for maps and GIS.

And Amazon’s limited OS won’t be great for it (to be fair, it won’t be designed and intended for it).

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That could just be a software limitation because they don’t want people scratching the display up.

If it is, if you could enable pressure sensitivity, it would obviously void the warranty in several ways.

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I’m almost certain it is being done to protect the display as eink screens normally don’t have the top glass layer that LCD or OLED does.

I highly doubt it’s software only though.

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Thanks!

Flip side question — will the Kindle Scribe styluses work on other Wacom digitizers? Which ones?

(it would be kind of a hoot if my signature stylus from my NCR-3125 was relevant again)

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This likely won’t matter for most note-takers. They should state this info in the specs, however, for those to whom it will matter. “No pressure or tilt functionality “ or something.

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Agreed, though in the past Amazon’s hardware has been kind of a work in progress type operation, especially if it’s something they haven’t done before like pen support. Plus add to the fact that it’s not in house tech, but licensed from a 3rd party, likely explains some of the ambiguity.

On the bright side it might mean that it will be relatively easy to hack, as been the case with past “new” devices so other capability may be there.

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34

Okay, my understanding is the situation should be one of the following:

  • Kindle Scribe digitizer lacks pressure input, accepts any current-generation Wacom EMR stylus, but w/o pressure
  • Kindle Scribe digitizer and stylus lack pressure input, Kindle Scribe stylus when used on other Wacom EMR devices tracks, but when touched to the screen doesn’t provide pressure information (but does ink/work as an input)
  • Kindle Scribe digitizer and stylus are a different sort of hardware and there is no (or limited) compatibility (say tracking only, but no ability to click/touch, or tracks as an input only w/ no hover)

Anyone able to test? Is there some 3rd possibility I’m not accounting for?

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Did have a further thought — if the Scribe is successful, might this then prompt Amazon to make a Kindle Fire which also supports a stylus (presumably the same one as the Scribe, which I’m hoping is the same as on current generation Wacom EMR (my first bullet point above))?

If Amazon were to do that, what would such a device look like? Perhaps something to compete w/ a high-end Samsung Galaxy Tablet? (I’m still tempted by the Tab S8 Ultra)

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I’m wondering about the future there as well. We’ve heard informally that Amazon was surprised by success of the Kobo Ellipsa,(which is still periodically in short supply) and that they have been looking for ways to goose Kindle sales as they have been flat to down for the last couple of generations.

We also have heard that they have at least considered a more premium tablet than the current fires.

I for one would love to see an Oasis sized Scribe, that could also run 3rd party apps.

Hopefully Amazon will stick with this and it won’t go the way of the Fire Phone, which despite its numerous shortcomings, actually had some promising ideas.

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37

I was trying to envision what the usage would be for folks who aren’t heavily invested into Kindle books — you give up a lot relative to the other options, but it might be workable if one is willing to make specialized notebooks as PDFs and if the markup of them is reasonable. If buttons and so forth work, one could make a really nice one — there’s one for SuperNote on Github which is amazing.

I’m a bit miffed that texts sent to the Kindle are segregated as “Documents” and that they don’t show w/ a nice cover consistently (hit or miss on my Paperwhite, not seeing it in the Kindle app I finally broke down and put on my MacBook). This won’t matter as much for folks who aren’t buying Kindle books.

Reading my first document has Amazon prompting me to learn about:

  • highlighting/note-taking
  • Notebook — “Review all your highlights, notes, images, and bookmarks in one place.”
  • Flashcards
  • Export — “Export your notes and highlights to share with others, or to continue working on a project or assignment. You can also add summary notes to review later.”

And now I’m a bit angry — first book I started to read had audio (a synthesized voice reading) autoplay…

Anyway, the app seems really clunky (I can’t even figure out how to hide comics/graphic novels, or to show only them) and I guess I would have to e-mail a PDF to the “Send to Kindle” address to get it to show in the app?

(and for some reason, this has the doubling of Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven I have on my Paperwhite)

I have a bunch of PDFs which I think I’d like to have on my Scribe, most notably a collection of the first 250 issues of Dragon Magazine from the archives DVD they did a while back. as well as all my Girl Genius graphic novels — really, really, really don’t want to have to e-mail all that to the “Send to Kindle” feature — is there some other option? Ideally transfer over USB?

EDIT: Naturally a quick search reveals that answer to be “Yes”:

Anyway, downloaded not quite a dozen books which aren’t that readable on my Paperwhite and we’ll have to see.

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38

I believe the presence of Wacom EMR here was mainly thanks to the fact that Wacom is the dominant player on the penabled E-ink market with already many E-ink screen size designed with it.

Wacom EMR was already withdrawn from most IPS screen devices to give way to cheaper AES, with Samsung being the sole exception on Android, and on Windows several luxury ( Acer concept D9, HP Z Book tablet), or obscured devices to use up old stock (those 10.1" and 8" screen from Windows 8 Era). I don’t think the chance they would make a new EMR Digitizer IPS screen specially for a new Kindle is very high.

I would be interested if I could put Google play on this thing, because Amazon store is a wasteland, And Google services are necessary for paid app. It would be interesting to have a day light viewable digital sketchbook that I won’t need to worry about battery life during usage. Even black and white wouldn’t be a problem because most physical sketchbook are black (pencil) with white/ yellow paper anyway.

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39

Yes, but these screens are being made by Samsung.

I’d give my interest in Hell for a Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra which runs a version of Windows, or on which Linux was supported.

The Boox Tab Ultra looks promising, and if the Kindle Scribe doesn’t work out will be my next purchase unless something better comes along.

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And FWIW, Wacom’s licensing rules and requirements are byzantine to put it mildly with different rules and requirements for each type of device. We found out the hard way when we considered licensing it for one of our custom devices.

That being said, I think the overriding reason for Wacom in devices like this one is the simplest one which is that they consume significantly less power than for example AES or even USI.

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