Amazon announces the Kindle Scribe - 10.2" Kindle with stylus support

[Marinolino]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Not much there. A pressure sensitive pen, but ...

No doubt the gadget blogs & goofyereader will wax lyrical and ignore the shortcomings (too big for ebooks, no handwritting conversion) and fail to say it's brilliant for proofing or reading PDFs (which are not true ebooks) and otherwise nearly pointless for ebooks and writing (an 8" Kobo Sage is far better).

Still to be answered: Kindle Print Replica and fixed layout Amazon sales not supported on any prior eink Kindle ever.

Too be brilliant for proofing or reading PDFs it should offer as good pdf capabilities as Onyx readers (all the necessary cropping modes, multiple tabs for simultaneously opened pdfs, decent speed at reaching the bookmarked pages etc.)

[WillAdams]

There's been a report that PDF documents w/ tables are not handled well --- really curious about what aspect of their PDF handling is the cause of that and if/when/how it will be addressed.

https://forum.tabletpc.review/t/pen-...dle-scribe/968

(scroll down towards the bottom)

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

There's been a report that PDF documents w/ tables are not handled well --- really curious about what aspect of their PDF handling is the cause of that and if/when/how it will be addressed.

https://forum.tabletpc.review/t/pen-...dle-scribe/968

(scroll down towards the bottom)

I saw that, but it's really necessary to examine the PDF in question. I doubt 'all PDFs with tables' are problematic. You might find there's a lot of 'junk PostScript' in there, which is causing these performance issues.

[WillAdams]

PDFs don't have "junk PostScript", they have PDF object(s) which may or may not have been made w/ PostScript code, and possibly PostScript XObjects which are intentionally created and placed in the stream of other objects and which certain PDF renderers (usually on imagesetters) could make use of, unless the software doing the distilling to PDF is either technically wrong and not adhering to the PDF specification, or maliciously hiding PS code (though w/o a Display PostScript or other PS interpreter, I fail to see the usage in doing so).

How tables are constructed in a PDF (or designed for that matter) can vary pretty wildly, and apparently there is some added tagging involved in PDFs being sent to the KS via e-mail so that they can be marked up (perhaps a resurrection of the "Print Replica" format?).

Once I get mine, I'll see if such files can be transferred off, and start disassembling them (Fortunately the PDF spec is available: https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acro...ence1.7old.pdf and https://web.archive.org/web/20220306..._17_errata.pdf --- though why those twain couldn't be integrated into a single updated document, I'll never understand).

[Quoth]

Like most tech articles on The Guardian more a regurgitated press release or advert than a real review.
Mentions none of the shortcomings.
No comparisons or mention late to show. (Sony Digital paper was original, better than reMarkable poorer apart from DPI to Kobo Scribe, or other models of 10.3″ eink). It does mention the price of Elipsa and reMarkable, but not that reMarkable is worse than all other 10.3″ models.
https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...ry-life-screen

The important bit

The Scribe is a great, giant-sized premium e-reader. But its enormous potential as a digital writing device has yet to be realised.

Pros: giant screen, very long battery life, auto-brightness and colour frontlight, recycled aluminium, fantastic writing feel, included magnetically attached stylus.

Cons: expensive, writing experience is basic, no handwriting recognition, no useful syncing of notebooks or compatibility with third-party services, case not included.

[WillAdams]

Not sure what they mean by:

>no useful syncing of notebooks

I've already found the synching to the Kindle app so as to be able to consult/review Notebooks quite useful.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

Not sure what they mean by:

>no useful syncing of notebooks

I've already found the synching to the Kindle app so as to be able to consult/review Notebooks quite useful.

If you cannot edit or even delete with the Kindle app, then I would say it does not support those use cases, hence, 'not useful'. If you have to carry a Scribe everywhere to make notes, or it breaks, what is your backup? Use some other note app and then re-create them some how on Scribe?

It almost goes without saying that they need to add some features, and if they really want this to be a note-taking platform. To me it means you should be able to do this stuff on more than one platform, e.g. extend it to Android and iOS.

[WillAdams]

Yes, they do need to add more features (and presumably will).

But it does synch (from the Scribe to the Kindle App), and I find that useful (being able to read/consult my notes at need).

Yes, it would be nice for it to be possible to have all Scribe functionality on the App, and have an additional synch option to merge changes back to the Scribe, but the one-way synch which the system currently has is useful for at least some folks, so the absolute statement:

>no useful synching of notebooks

is patently false for those folks who find being able to read/consult Scribe notes in the Kindle App useful.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

Yes, they do need to add more features (and presumably will).

But it does synch (from the Scribe to the Kindle App), and I find that useful (being able to read/consult my notes at need).

Yes, it would be nice for it to be possible to have all Scribe functionality on the App, and have an additional synch option to merge changes back to the Scribe, but the one-way synch which the system currently has is useful for at least some folks, so the absolute statement:

>no useful synching of notebooks

is patently false for those folks who find being able to read/consult Scribe notes in the Kindle App useful.

It seems that even text notes that you create by tapping with the stylus and then entering notes with the virtual keyboard do not sync, even if there is no handwriting. These at least should be regular notes synced and editable everywhere.