Kindle Scribe

[angryAspect]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I am curious how sticky notes and PDF annotations are actually stored on a Scribe. Regular text annotations for KFX format are stored in a .yjr file in the .sdr folder associated with the book. In the KFX personal documents posted earlier in this thread the .yjr file associated with the PDF document has a new data structure called "annotation.personal.handwritten_note". Where the text of a regular annotation would appear it instead has the string "cv5GW4xHvSmWMXVPefHzMPQ0". There is no apparent sign of an actual annotation image. Perhaps it is stored elsewhere on the device.

As far as I can tell, that handwritten note is stored in a SQLite3 database (path: /.notebooks/uniqueString!!PDOC!!notebook/nbk for a personal doc, or uniqueString!!EBOK!!notebook/nbk for a purchased eBook). I am unable to actually open the database, though--sqlite3 is coming back with a "malformed schema" error on all of the nbk files I pulled from my Scribe, and running a recover on one just comes back with an empty database file.

Opening one in a text editor, though, does yield some information on how it's stored... For example (cleaned up a bit):

nmdl.type nmdl.free_form nmdl.stroke nmdl.stroke_group nmdl.color nmdl.brush_type nmdl.max_resolution_x nmdl.max_resolution_y nmdl.thickness nmdl.canvas_width nmdl.canvas_height nmdl.normalized_ppi nmdl.position_x nmdl.position_y nmdl.pressure nmdl.tilt_x nmdl.tilt_y nmdl.num_points nmdl.stroke_points nmdl.stroke_bounds nmdl.chunked nmdl.chunk_threshold nmdl.template_id nmdl.template_type nmdl.thickness_adjust_f

I'm assuming that each stroke gets stored, along with information on where it should be placed on a document. And based on those (assuming again) column names, there may have been a plan to include pressure/tilt information (or perhaps that will be added with a firmware update, assuming the hardware supports it).

That string you referenced is in one of the nbk files (path: /.notebooks/DBE32A7F4E1546E0BF5AEC5ADFD78916!!PDOC!!notebook/nbk).

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by angryAspect

I am unable to actually open the database, though--sqlite3 is coming back with a "malformed schema" error on all of the nbk files I pulled from my Scribe, and running a recover on one just comes back with an empty database file.

One variant of Amazons’s KFX format uses an SQLite database with added information intended to prevent tampering. Perhaps something similar is going on here. If you could post a sample I would be interested in looking at it.

[BanditoB]

I just got my Scribe yesterday and, so far, the experience hasn’t been all that good.

First, the setup using the iPhone’s Kindle app doesn’t work. I starts by asking you to select the WiFi network that you want to use with the Scribe, but the network SSID for the network that the iPhone is currently connected to doesn’t show up, so there’s nothing to select other than all of the neighbors’ networks. Weird problem. A call to customer service was no help at all. I finally told them that I would just set it up manually and they agreed that was the way to go. I did, however, convince them to try to report the bug to the software team so that it can be addressed. I saw in one of the Scribe review videos that they had the same issue, so I know it’s not just me.

Next, after getting everything set up, my library showed up, but of course, nothing was downloaded. I found out that there is no way to tell a Kindle to download everything. You have to go to Amazon’s website and go under Content and Devices. There you can select your books and queue them for download, but it only allows you to do 25 books at a time, so you have to keep going through the Select All, Deliver to Device, go to the next listing page, rinse and repeat and repeat until you are done. This seems a bit ridiculous to me. The setup process should simply give you the option to download your entire library and there should be a setting that allows you to force a download on the device, too.

So, now I have my entire library on the Scribe, things seem to be okay. I created a Notebook to test out the note taking functions, which are what is advertised and quite limited but very functional for what they do have. I am assuming a lot more features will be coming in the future.

Now that I’m done experimenting, I go to delete the Notebook and it gives me an error, “Sorry cannot delete your To Dos notebook right now, try again.” I tried multiple times, but continued getting the same error message. So, I restarted the Scribe only to get the same error after trying to delete the Notebook again. Another call to customer service and the only recommendation was to reset to factory defaults and start over. I told them that I would consider this, but wasn’t going to do it while on the line with them. I rang off and decided to connect the Scribe to my computer to see if I could find and delete the file(s) that way, but no joy. So, I did the factory reset. After everything came up again and I again forced the download of all my content, the troublesome notebook was the last thing to show up. This time, however, I was able to successfully delete it.

While browsing my content on Amazon’s website, I noted that the notebook doesn’t show up there anywhere. This seems like a rather large oversight. I would think that they would have added a Notebook category for the Scribe, but currently there is nothing.

It really seems like they’ve rushed this out the door to make the holidays.

I hope this doesn’t come off as nothing but a gripe session as that’s not what I intended. So far, I do like the Scribe and I think that it has nowhere to go but up. The hardware seems great, so the software just needs to be developed to take advantage of what the hardware can offer.

The first thing on my list would be handwriting to text conversion. Notes are okay, but searchable notes are really the cat’s pajamas!

I can’t wait to see what will come next year as the software gets updated and new features are added.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sanch

Yes, I did this today via Calibre, converted an epub to kfx for the non-justified text alignment. -100 to reach the very edge of the screen, so I went with -75 to leave a tiny bit of space and still get more words on a line than the default.
The hand icon overlaps, but I put it on the right side and at -75 it’s an acceptable trade-off.

Thanks. That's good to know that negative margins still work.

[tomsem]

@BanditoB, how many books in your library? even downloading a couple of hundred can tie up a Kindle for a number of hours while it creates index. Maybe your issue with deleting Notebooks is related.

If you have iOS or Android device you can view Notebooks with the Kindle app. I don't know if the apps let you delete anything (I did ask upthread but nobody has answered yet).

[SCION]

Originally Posted by tomsem

@BanditoB, how many books in your library? even downloading a couple of hundred can tie up a Kindle for a number of hours while it creates index. Maybe your issue with deleting Notebooks is related.

If you have iOS or Android device you can view Notebooks with the Kindle app. I don't know if the apps let you delete anything (I did ask upthread but nobody has answered yet).

You can view notebooks. Can’t do anything else with them (rename, delete).

[BanditoB]

@tomsem, I only have 157 books currently, but that still requires going through 7 screens on Amazon to get them all downloaded.

The download only took about 5 minutes as ebooks are pretty small and I have a 1Gbps fiber connection, so it wasn’t the worst experience I could’ve had.

Since factory resetting and reinstalling everything, I have not experienced any further issues and it seems to be working just fine now, so maybe something wasn’t right in the original configuration. Who knows.

I’ll have to take a look at the Kindle iOS apps. I have them installed on my iPhone and iPad, but have never used them as I much prefer my Kindles for book reading.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[jhowell]

I took a quick look at the Kindle Scribe firmware to see what is different from previous models. As far as I can tell the handwritten annotation features are tightly tied to KFX format. The kfxreader application was changed significantly. The templates for notebooks, like checklist and daily planner, are single page KDF documents (KFX in an SQLite wrapper) containing KVG (Amazon's proprietary version of SVG) images.

[Waitingforatrain]

I ordered the Fintie rotating case a few weeks back and it arrived a few days ago. I had been using the official Kindle fabric case in the meantime. The trouble I had with the official one is that it didn't seem to actually hold the Scribe securely in place. I could just see it sliding out and onto the floor (clumsy me). Much happier with the Fintie one. Doesn't add much more bulk and the Scribe is well secured. It's a little awkward to turn to portrait mode but will get used to that I am sure. The pen gets in the way with either case. I may just leave it in my desk drawer...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Waitingforatrain

I ordered the Fintie rotating case a few weeks back and it arrived a few days ago. I had been using the official Kindle fabric case in the meantime. The trouble I had with the official one is that it didn't seem to actually hold the Scribe securely in place. I could just see it sliding out and onto the floor (clumsy me). Much happier with the Fintie one. Doesn't add much more bulk and the Scribe is well secured. It's a little awkward to turn to portrait mode but will get used to that I am sure. The pen gets in the way with either case. I may just leave it in my desk drawer...

Now that you have a Finte case, start looking for a replacement as it's going tp wear-out soon. Finte cases do not last.

[LDB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Now that you have a Finte case, start looking for a replacement as it's going tp wear-out soon. Finte cases do not last.

And yet my Fintie case for my Oasis has been in constant use, roughly 0.98(365) use, for 38 months and is in very good if not excellent condition showing less than 10% wear degradation from new.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by jhowell

As far as I can tell the handwritten annotation features are tightly tied to KFX format.

In that case a future update enabling writing natively on actual PDFs or proper on-page writing on kindle ebooks and personal documents seems unlikely.

This is a weird gamble from Amazon; by forcing people to upload their documents to the cloud, they forfeit any chance of the Scribe being considered as a valid option by businesses instead of tablets. Also I thought one use case for such devices in the corporate world would be the secure, but actual, signature of documents; a player the size of Amazon might have been able to get into this market and call the shots, but those conversion shenanigans make this less likely.

Even for regular users who are less concerned with privacy, the current solution is not great, as I heard the conversion from PDF is less than stellar; e.g. if a scaling is applied to the PDF image, the same scaling is not applied to any hyperlinks present in the file, rendering them basically useless.

Very sad to see such a promising device with exceptional hardware being held back by such obscure (to me) decisions on the software side.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Now that you have a Finte case, start looking for a replacement as it's going tp wear-out soon. Finte cases do not last.

I've had some trouble with the Slim Shell Finties, but my Portfolio Finties hold up very well. (I haven't had much luck with any of the "slim shell" type cases, Fintie or otherwise.)

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

This is a weird gamble from Amazon; by forcing people to upload their documents to the cloud, they forfeit any chance of the Scribe being considered as a valid option by businesses instead of tablets. Also I thought one use case for such devices in the corporate world would be the secure, but actual, signature of documents; a player the size of Amazon might have been able to get into this market and call the shots, but those conversion shenanigans make this less likely.

It makes sense to me that Amazon would use KFX format for the pen-based annotation features of the Scribe. Scribe development is under the Kindle arm of Amazon and the Kindle platform has always been about proprietary formats and platform lock-in. Kindle developers are already familiar with that format and development costs were likely less by making that the only format supported internally.

I see the Scribe as being created to look good in a checklist comparing the Kindle and Kobo product lines, to help make Amazon more attractive to new customers. I doubt that Amazon sees note taking as a lucrative business that they are going to invest many resources in. I expect them to produce only the minimum acceptable feature set with minimal ties to other platforms and formats.

I suspect that the features listed on the Scribe product page as being available in coming months (new brush types, copy/paste, notebook organization, and send from MS Word) were originally planned for the initial release but not ready in time. I would expect only minor changes to be coming after that. And I doubt that handwriting recognition will ever happen.

--------------

One thing I am wondering about is how the Scribe will affect the availability of personal documents in KFX format on other Kindle apps and devices. Until now Amazon has reserved the Enhanced Typesetting features associated with KFX format in reflowable layout for only books they provide, not personal documents. This made sense for them as a way to promote purchasing from Amazon to obtain a better reading experience.

That restriction has now been relaxed, but apparently only for Scribe owners. I am curious whether the next general Kindle firmware release will make this available to all newer Kindles or whether it will continue to be a Scribe-only feature.

Also I am curious whether any Scribe owner has tried to look at sticky notes made on a Scribe within a personal document on other platforms, specifically Kindle for Android and iOS. If they work there that implies that KFX format is also being delivered to those apps for Scribe owners. (I know that as a non-Scribe user I do not receive personal documents in KFX on any platform so far.)

[rem736]

decalgirl.com now has skins for the kindle scribe.