Firmware Update New Kindle Scribe Software Update

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Tom Swift

I, like others, came to see if there was a way to turn off this irritating icon, since I use my Scribe just for reading. As well, it doesn’t even work properly. I have to hold down the button on my pen in order to write a note. Irritating.
I hate to have to jailbreak but if Amazon doesn’t make this new change optional, I probably will have to. I don’t take notes on my Scribe; I just want to read.

I assume you have writing toolbar turned off. If that's the case, then yes, you would have to program the button with some stroke or other to write. Too bad if you have standard pen.

It is a bug: expanded margin should have its own toolbar that appears when it appears, just as when creating handwritten notes in the popup editor (it should just use that toolbar instead). You can hide the Writing toolbar and still create sticky notes, the same should be true of expanded margin since it is just another way of creating them. This should be fixed even if the UX team is in love with the always-there expanded margin icon and doesn't want to change it.

I have send feedback about this but I think I had too many issues in it. It's probably better to send one feedback for each issue, it's easier for them to classify it, and this one is pretty 'atomic' and fixing it should not touch a lot of existing code.

I would not mind the always on icon so much if this were fixed.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by Tom Swift

I hate to have to jailbreak but if Amazon doesn’t make this new change optional, I probably will have to. I don’t take notes on my Scribe; I just want to read.

I’m confident Amazon will add the option to hide the icon in a future update - that’s the expected behavior of any UI element on an e-reader, and the backlash is already (and rightfully) quite significant.

AFAIK there’s no way to hide the icon even on a jailbroken device, however I’d like to say that KOReader works remarkably well on the Scribe, and if you’re not using the pen then you wouldn’t be missing out on much (although de-DRMing and converting books to epub is admittedly a hassle). I like to use my Scribe in two-page landscape mode, and on the stock firmware the margins and the line spacing are way too wide for my taste; KOReader allows a much finer control over those. Since I installed it I’m really only going back to the stock firmware when I need to use the pen.

[tomsem]

Someone would have to pay me to use KOReader.

There is no way for any of us to know how many (or even some rough percentage) of Scribe users who have strong feelings about this. Complainers come here and to other forums to complain and seek some release or sympathy (you have mine). But Amazon is the only actor in position to have metrics to guide future development.

There was huge outcry here when they tweaked the UI and OMG now you could only see 5 books in your library. They never changed that. The same could be the case with this.

It's not a big deal for me to have the tiny thing there, even though I create relatively few notes (I keep telling myself that I should create more notes to improve retention but it's not changing my behavior). But they should at least address the functional issues, like not being able to write in the extended margin when toolbar is hidden.

[Tom Swift]

I posted the complaint (one of many similar complaints) in the Amazon support forum and someone posted that he was told from Amazon a fix would be forthcoming. Take from that what you will.

[jhowell]

The eBook Reader Blog has a new post, Wow, Practically Nobody is Buying the Kindle Scribe Lately, indicating that Scribe sales are in the hundreds of units per month recently. That does not give Amazon a lot of incentive to fix bugs or add new features.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The eBook Reader Blog has a new post, Wow, Practically Nobody is Buying the Kindle Scribe Lately, indicating that Scribe sales are in the hundreds of units per month recently. That does not give Amazon a lot of incentive to fix bugs or add new features.

It is still in thousands of units per month by my arithmetic (just for US site).

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by tomsem

It is still in thousands of units per month by my arithmetic (just for US site).

Where did you get those numbers from?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Where did you get those numbers from?

The product page shows number sold in last month just above the price. I haven't looked at these enough to know what 'resolution' of sales figures are: I don't think there's anything between '500+' and '1000+', or between '1000+' and '2000+' so the actual total could be significantly higher than lower bound.

[DNSB]

Not in my neck of the woods.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Not in my neck of the woods.

I don't think you folks buy enough stuff up there. Good on you.

[tomsem]

Just wanted to pass along a tip with regards to writing things when there is no Writing toolbar:

If premium pen button is programmed to activate pencil/pen/marker, then you can still underline, initiate and write in active canvas, write in expanded margin, or directly on converted PDF documents by holding the button, even with writing toolbar hidden.

I do not write very much when reading books, so I like toolbar hidden to reduce clutter.

It would be better if a toolbar appeared whenever editing active canvas or expanded margin is open (as it does when adding handwritten notes), and hopefully an update will provide this feature, but in the meantime this lets me use the newer active canvas and expanded margin features when I want to.

[jackm8]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Just wanted to pass along a tip with regards to writing things when there is no Writing toolbar:

If premium pen button is programmed to activate pencil/pen/marker, then you can still underline, initiate and write in active canvas, write in expanded margin, or directly on converted PDF documents by holding the button, even with writing toolbar hidden.

I do not write very much when reading books, so I like toolbar hidden to reduce clutter.

It would be better if a toolbar appeared whenever editing active canvas or expanded margin is open (as it does when adding handwritten notes), and hopefully an update will provide this feature, but in the meantime this lets me use the newer active canvas and expanded margin features when I want to.

Great tip. You may have just earned €87.13 for Amazon. Or more likely some offbrand pen with a button that works. I'm actually judging worth of it right now. I went with standard one, and never regretted it until now. I don't annotate much in fixed page books, but when I do, constantly opening and closing toolbar is a true annoyance, since I'm used to tapping the screen instead of swiping it to turn pages.

[Ebookus]

with the new update and while in dark mode, open the the side panel margin, close it and now go backwards one page, do you all get a white line drawn across the whole height of the screen?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jackm8

Great tip. You may have just earned €87.13 for Amazon. Or more likely some offbrand pen with a button that works. I'm actually judging worth of it right now. I went with standard one, and never regretted it until now. I don't annotate much in fixed page books, but when I do, constantly opening and closing toolbar is a true annoyance, since I'm used to tapping the screen instead of swiping it to turn pages.

Updates have been sorta 2 steps forward and one back. In the latest update they forgot they have many Scribe users with standard pens, making it less flexible to use the new features for them. Even if you have a so called premium pen, it forces you to work around things by reserving the button for those workarounds (as my 'tip' details).

So with 5.17.3, if Writing toolbar is hidden, and you open expanded margin, the pen tip is set to Select and you cannot write! It should bring up a writing toolbar and default to whatever pen tip was last active. And then when you hide writing toolbar, the toolbar goes away again. No button required.

And eve for the earlier active canvas feature, you should be able to create one without a button somehow and with WT hidden. For example select some text with it, the menu offers to create one as one of the options, opens a space for it, and brings up a writing toolbar so you have full access to all the pen tools, and you can start writing in there. When you're done and exit edit mode, this toolbar goes away.

And if WT is hidden, you should be able to tap in an existing active canvas, again a writing toolbar should show up and let you start editing the active canvas. Again no button required to work around it.