Firmware Update Kindle Scribe 5.17.2 Available

[nathanwj]

It's here! New annotation features! I'm honestly surprised it was released so soon considering all of the problems with the new kindles.

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Version 5.17.2 – December 2024

Here's what's new:

Annotation Features in Books: You can now create richer annotations in eBooks with enhanced typesetting and Word documents. Draw highlights and underlines that automatically snap to neatened annotations, or create a canvas by writing on the page or inserting one from the writing toolbar.

AI Notebook Tools: You can now recap your notes with the new notebook summarization feature, or refine your writing, converting your handwritten words into a script font for a more elegant look.

Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.

[Smoit]

Installing

[tomsem]

Active canvas is pretty neat.

You can enter nearly a whole page of handwritten notes, but can then resize so it takes up minimum space. However if you do that, you need to expand manually to see everything (either in place or in Notes). I was hoping there'd be a Hide/Show feature (hide would reduce it to some icon and tapping on that would restore the canvas), and that Notes would show everything regardless of the current size of the active canvas box.

And Notes does not show any context (such as nearby text). You can sort of add this by making a highlight next to the active canvas.

You can also create underline highlights now. But they do not (at least not yet) appear on non-Scribe Kindles or the Kindle apps.

And whatever you put in active canvas isn't visible either on the other devices/apps, either.

I do not see any changes for print replica documents (e.g. there is no Underline feature apart from what you can draw).

Just starting to look at AI features for Notebooks (Summary or Refine Writing). These take single page or notebook (limited to 16 pages I think?) and generate 'text' (using one of 4 'handwriting fonts') that you can add at start or end of notebook.

Summarize will take more looking at (didn't do so well with a list of stuff), but Refine Writing works really well. The added pages are just regular pages, with regular pen strokes that you can erase or replace, copy move and paste, or add to.

And if it looks good, you can go back and delete the original pages before sharing etc. A lot easier than trying to edit text in the preview of the text conversion.

What we're still missing are ways of copying or moving pages to other or new notebooks and that sort of thing. Or even just a lasso option to capture an entire page to clipboard.

There is a new Shortcut button: Canvas. Not sure why you need it since you can just start writing to create one.

But this is what they promised in the launch event.

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by tomsem

generate 'text' (using one of 4 'handwriting fonts') that you can add at start or end of notebook.
[...] The added pages are just regular pages, with regular pen strokes that you can erase or replace, copy move and paste, or add to.

So the fonts are made from pen strokes, maybe akin to a TTF/OTF font being built from vector shapes? That explains why they all look like handwriting instead of being type style. I'd be happy if they could create actual UTF text, but I understand the limitations if the whole Notebook system only operates with pen vectors.

[Josieb1]

The AI feature is only for the US btw

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

The AI feature is only for the US btw

I was wondering about that. On the other side, I've never used the AI features on my boox device beyond a test if it works or not.

[jackm8]

Anyone with the new white Scribe? It appears to be somewhat overlooked next to colour Kindle. I'm wondering what are the differences.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by jackm8

Anyone with the new white Scribe? It appears to be somewhat overlooked next to colour Kindle. I'm wondering what are the differences.

If I remember correctly the differences for the device itself should be purely cosmetic, however the premium pen that ships with the new Scribe was redesigned and now sports a rubbery “eraser” end, and perhaps other features (can’t recall exactly).

I believe the new pen can be used with the old Scribe, but it only comes in colors matching the new Scribes (although the “tungsten grey” variant might be close enough to the original Scribe).

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jackm8

Anyone with the new white Scribe? It appears to be somewhat overlooked next to colour Kindle. I'm wondering what are the differences.

The known differences are the new bezel design (white with color band on the wide side) and new premium (and more costly) Pen with textured eraser.

My questions are:

- is 'gap' between frame and glass there or not (Reddit opinion is divided but mostly based on photos and not first hand observation)
- will it have Download & Transfer option
- is system folder (and thumbnails subfolder) accessible via USB
- any significant internal component differences (will have to wait for a teardown)

[tomsem]

More information about the new features (from product page), emphasis added:

2. Can I view my notes on other Kindle surfaces?
You can view your Kindle Scribe notebooks through the Kindle app for iOS and Android. To access them, go to the “More” tab in the app and select “Notebooks” to view all the notebooks created on your Kindle Scribe. Additionally, you can view any highlights or sticky notes you made in books; however, you can't view underlines or Active Canvas notes.

3. How do I use the AI notebook tools?
To summarize, open a notebook, tap the AI icon, and select “Summarize”. Choose up to 15 pages (or specific pages from Bird's Eye View) to extract key takeaways, saving time in reviewing your notes.

For writing refinement, tap the AI icon and choose “Refine Writing”. Select up to 10 pages to convert your handwriting into a polished, script-like font. This works best for narrative-style notes, to-do lists, or nested lists, but may not be as effective for non-linear layouts like calendars or planners.

Both tools may need time to sync new notebooks. For a faster experience, tap “Sync” to manually sync your notes before using AI tools. You can customize the font style, size, and spacing of the output. Results are inserted into your notebook using a blank page template for a clean, organized presentation. AI notebook tools are supported for the English language and are available in the US.

Seems we may be waiting some time for more regions and languages to be supported. Wonder why?

One use of Active Canvas that has captured my fancy is to insert one as a 'spacer' where formatting should have had it (as signaled by an unindented first line of a paragraph). With the active canvas tool selected, you can use stylus or fingertip to insert it, then use the bottom 'handle' to reduce vertical size to minimum (about 3 lines).

But I still would like a way to minimize/restore a given active canvas (or all of them). And Notes should always show the whole thing, not as it might appear clipped in reading view due to reducing the canvas size.

[JoeC]

I briefly played with the Active Canvas - I think I’ll be making more notes in books than I thought I would.

[Dr. Drib]

Hasn't yet made it to my Kindle Scribe first version.

[Drybonz]

I received my 2024 Scribe today and it asked me to update right out of the box.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Hasn't yet made it to my Kindle Scribe first version.

You can update it manually.

[jhowell]

I took at look at the 5.17.2 Scribe firmware and came across some potential new features. As usual some of these may not be available unless remotely enabled by Amazon.

• Handwriting recognition powered by MyScript. Includes specific support for text, symbols, and math.
• Mention of adding notes to margins: "Open the side panel to take handwritten notes in the margin"
• Household member profiles with roles and avatars.
• Recaps for books and series: "Refresh your memory of this series with recaps of books you own or have borrowed." "This recap will reveal character and plot developments from this title and preceding ones in the series." "Recap has spoilers"
• Mention of an "animated" KFX book variant, probably not supported on e-ink Kindles.