Kindle Scribe

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The minimum left/right margins on a Kindle tend to be much wider than the minimum margins on most other devices. I tend to add some CSS when creating azw3/KF8 ebooks from epubs to shrink those margins. On a Paperwhite 4, this increases the available screen width by ~9%.

tomsem was complaining that kindles don't allow lines of text to be set short enough, the opposite complaint most people have. The quote from his message did not provide enough context.

[JoeC]

I found this review of the Kindle Scribe to pretty thorough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=sriluzyX9uU

[rem736]

one thing that i would like on the scribe is for it to have a magnetic mounting system for cases. this way, you can easily remove the case for when you want to just hold it for reading. amazon did this for the first oasis, but abandoned the idea right after. such a shame.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by LDB

Confused. My Kindle, under the font A,a header, offers a layout tab with 3 options for margins and 3 options for line spacing. It has done that for as long as I remember. I keep each at the minimum to get the most text per page. Switching to the max setting of both literally cuts the word count per page in half, give or take a word.

I'm talking specifically about Landscape orientation. The lines are too long even with the largest margin settings (unless you increase text size). That's why Scribe, with its much larger screen, needs to support 2 column mode in Landscape: to make the lines short enough to read and parse comfortably with small to medium text sizes.

Even on 6-7" screens, the lines are a too long for me in Landscape, and so I hardly ever use it that way. But the screens are not quite large enough to where 2 columns would be comfortable, either. Amazon should just offer a broader range of margin adjustment (smaller, larger, and in between).

[SanAntone]

Originally Posted by rem736

one thing that i would like on the scribe is for it to have a magnetic mounting system for cases. this way, you can easily remove the case for when you want to just hold it for reading. amazon did this for the first oasis, but abandoned the idea right after. such a shame.

I received mine yesterday and the case today. It does attach magnetically.

[SanAntone]

Short review of the Emerald Leather Premium Case

First, for me a case is a necessity with the Scribe. Carried it at work today without a case and it is slippery. Also, like the Remarkable, the pen doesn’t stay attached well magnetically and is easily knocked off if rubbed up against clothing while walking.

I have a Remarkable 2 and greatly prefer that case design (open like a book). The flip down Scribe cover is magnetically attached and has three folds. It’s of good quality and, unlike the Remarkable, has a pen slot which I’m finding much more secure. I also like that you can tri-fold it and it will prop up on a table to read easier while eating. Big win there.

Even with all of that, I think, illogically, I prefer it to open to the left.

Good quality material. I don’t have any comparison with the regular leather or fabric and I suspect all will work equally well.

[rem736]

Originally Posted by SanAntone

I received mine yesterday and the case today. It does attach magnetically.

wow...really? mine was originally scheduled to deliver on 12/23. but i just got notice that it will deliver tomorrow. looking forward to the new reader and case (that attaches magnetically).

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by rem736

one thing that i would like on the scribe is for it to have a magnetic mounting system for cases. this way, you can easily remove the case for when you want to just hold it for reading. amazon did this for the first oasis, but abandoned the idea right after. such a shame.

Many (including myself) regard the original Oasis design as flawed, given that the cover had about 3/4 of the battery capacity. You had this nice, lightweight device without it attached, but only about 7 hours of reading time. You could not charge the cover independently of the Kindle, and it also precluded using 3rd party covers (unless you didn't mind charging your Kindle every 6 hours or so). And it entailed more charging cycles for the Oasis, usually not good for the life of the battery.

I think what would work better is something like the iPad covers which magnetically attach to one side and cover the display side only. But iPads had the necessary magnets to allow for the edge attachment, and Scribe doesn't.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by LDB

Confused. My Kindle, under the font A,a header, offers a layout tab with 3 options for margins and 3 options for line spacing. It has done that for as long as I remember. I keep each at the minimum to get the most text per page. Switching to the max setting of both literally cuts the word count per page in half, give or take a word.

Originally Posted by DNSB

The minimum left/right margins on a Kindle tend to be much wider than the minimum margins on most other devices. I tend to add some CSS when creating azw3/KF8 ebooks from epubs to shrink those margins. On a Paperwhite 4, this increases the available screen width by ~9%.

@media amzn-kf8 {
  html {
    margin-left: -50px;
    margin-right: -50px;
  }
}

Originally Posted by j.p.s

tomsem was complaining that kindles don't allow lines of text to be set short enough, the opposite complaint most people have. The quote from his message did not provide enough context.

I had read tomem's original message however I was responding to LDB's message hence the quote from LDB not tomsem. LDB was discussing how to increase the available length of lines which is what I was responding to. My old eyes like a large enough font that I seldom run into issues with line length when reading in portrait layout.

Since an Elipsa with the margin set to 0 both in the CSS and margin slider literally goes from one edge of the screen to the other, I find Amazon's idea of margin adjustments to be rather sad. Now if Kobo would allow overriding the margin size set in the CSS/inline styles so I didn't have to edit some of those books published by idiots who think a 2.5cm wide left/right margin is a good idea. I know it looks more like a paper book but why waste that much of the screen on those margins?

[untilyouarrived]

First Impressions:

The screen is the best eink panel that I have ever used - by far.

It’s not too unwieldy.

300 dpi makes a big difference with PDFs that have small text, and navigating / zooming PDFs is nice and quick. Shame there is no option to save your zoom level between pages though.

Writing latency is good. Seems on par with my Remarkable.

Pen latency is limited, if present at all.

Syncing needs major work. You can’t write on a PDF unless it’s sent through the kindle app, and there is a hard limit of 50MB for transfers. A lot of my magazines are larger than this, so I have to side load and not have annotation features. Also, if I markup a pdf on the Scribe the changes aren’t visible on other devices. This is daft, and not at all how I would expect it to work.

Note taking tools are rudimentary, but sufficient for what it’s designed for. This isn’t a replacement for dedicated eNote devices (at least not yet).

I like how the sticky notes work, and would like to see this replicated on other devices. I know some people like to write in the margins but this works better for me.

Other WACOM pens work without issue, and those with buttons will probably replicate the utility of the premium pen. I haven’t taken the Amazon stylus out of the box.

To be honest, I think that Kindle OS is due a major overhaul - but this device is exactly what I expected and I’m happy with it.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by untilyouarrived

Syncing needs major work. You can’t write on a PDF unless it’s sent through the kindle app, and there is a hard limit of 50MB for transfers. A lot of my magazines are larger than this, so I have to side load and not have annotation features.

You can use the send to kindle webpage. It allows you to upload up to 200mb files.

https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle

[untilyouarrived]

Ah. That's good to know. Hopefully the apps will catch up soon.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by untilyouarrived

You can’t write on a PDF unless it’s sent through the kindle app ...
Also, if I markup a pdf on the Scribe the changes aren’t visible on other devices. This is daft, and not at all how I would expect it to work.

Note taking tools are rudimentary, but sufficient for what it’s designed for. This isn’t a replacement for dedicated eNote devices (at least not yet).

This is a complete fail for PDFs compared to every other eInk with a digitiser/stylue (except maybe the Sony Digital Paper as I think it only works via Windows/Mac Sony program, but it doesn't need the internet).
Unacceptable you have to use Internet.
Unacceptable it has to be sent to Amazon.
Unacceptable no option to mark up on the PDF.

A very badly designed walled garden. What's the point of using it to proof PDFs if they have to go to Amazon and can later only be viewed in an Amazon App?

The entire point of a 10″ approx size eink with Digitizer and stylus is PDFs. I was thinking of getting this for PDFs, but I'll wait until they replace the crazy workflow or Kobo has the same panel.

[WillAdams]

hleo12 wrote:

>You can use the send to kindle webpage. It allows you to upload up to 200mb files.

Has anyone compared a PDF sent through this mechanism to the original?

I suspect this is a resurrection of the "Print Replica" format.

[untilyouarrived]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I was thinking of getting this for PDFs, but I'll wait until they replace the crazy workflow or Kobo has the same panel.

If your use case is primarily PDFs, I'd probably go with Supernote / Remarkable - or even one of the android based devices.

I'm not surprised or disapointed. A Kindle was always going to be pretty restricted, but even so I think they need to make some improvements. People are going to be using this thing differently than a regular Kindle.