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The New Kindle Scribes Are Great, but Not Great Enough
- barbazoo 11mo agoNot familiar with wired. Is this an ad? Reads like a “review” but there is a “buy now” button, permanently covering about 25% of the bottom of the screen.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- IAmBroom 11mo agoWired is the online remnant of a once-popular computer magazine. Like any industry mag, it makes most of its money from ads, so its reviews should always be viewed with this in mind.
- rjsw 11mo agoNothing wrong with ads in the correct context, a good part of why we bought print computer magazines was to look at them as well as the articles.
- abdullahkhalids 11mo agoFrom TFA last paragraph > Ultimately, if you already have the second-generation Scribe, I don't think you need to upgrade.... you might as well upgrade to a reMarkable tablet.... a pretty big investment for a still-limited device.... neither of them would be my go-to pick. Don't think reviewers are getting paid to shill for Amazon.
- ayhanfuat 11mo agoIf you look at the query parameters of the Amazon links you can see that they are affiliate links. It might be more or less an honest review but they do earn money from it.
- showerst 11mo agoI don't think magazines using affiliate links necessarily makes a review unbiased. Recommended or not, if someone buys it from them they may as well make a cut. That said, many of these type of articles are just thinly veiled paid advertorials.
- refulgentis 11mo agoWe’ve discovered the review that says the thing is bad, is actually an ad for the thing, because the buy link has an affiliate code. Am I understanding you right? I feel like we have stumbled into a classic HN tarpit, where people try justifying something obviously wrong by adding one observation and implying it can be twisted into one segment of the obviously wrong thing. It’s a tarpit, because as soon as I point out this doesn’t change anything, you can either point out you were just observing or claim some other claim was what was being implied
- akuchling 11mo agoThat's not correct; Wired still produces a print edition every other month.
- giancarlostoro 11mo agoWired used to be more popular here, they aren't as they used to be it feels like, but it was basically a primary source of tech news for many of us.
- refulgentis 11mo agoSo you’re not familiar with Wired (!?), and think this is an ad, along with a side of review-in-scare quotes? “you might as well upgrade to a reMarkable tablet.... a pretty big investment for a still-limited device.... neither of them would be my go-to pick” And you’ve been on HN 15 years, just like me? Something tells me you’re cranky this morning and trolling a bit
- superultra 11mo agoThe day I trashed my huge collection of WIRED print mags, including that one Y2K dark glossy cover, was a sad day
- kraussvonespy 11mo agoI still bemoan selling the first couple of years of issues to someone on ebay. I needed to get the stuff out of the basement, but feels like I should have kept them just for the technology history lessons. I'm still looking for the very early Wired issue that has an ad that goes something like "they laughed at you when you were growing up because you were different. now they wear a uniform with their name on it. and you don't."
- mikestew 11mo ago16 years on HN, and enough karma to indicate that you regularly participate, but never heard of Wired magazine, huh?
- akazantsev 11mo agoFuture buyers, be aware that those are "small" margins. You can't make them smaller without modifying the ebook file itself. https://media.wired.com/photos/6938a3ba3f357ab2a44d03b1/master/w_1600,c_limit/Kindle%20Scribe%20Colorsoft%20Active%20Canvas%20trio%20triptych%20Reviewer%20Photo%20SOURCE%20Nena%20Farrell.jpg https://media.wired.com/photos/6938a3ba3f357ab2a44d03b1/mast...
- riskable 11mo agoebooks as a platform will never evolve until ereaders (like these) get ~30FPS refresh rates. That's when "scrollytelling" can enter the race and could very well expand the industry into new territory.
- jbullock35 11mo agoThe previous Kindle Scribe had a slow refresh rate, and it showed every time you tried to turn a page. All I want so far as refresh rates are concerned is seamless page-turning – page-turning that doesn’t make me wait. Will this version of the Scribe be any better? The Wired review doesn’t say.
- WillAdams 11mo agoIt's close --- used to be I would start the page turn when on the next-to-last line on the page, but more recent Kindles are fast enough that I don't bother, and it doesn't feel _that_ much slower than turning a physical page.
- refulgentis 11mo ago“scrollytelling”? Scrolling? Or tap to slideshow, which doesn’t require scrolling? Or some novel format that uses scrolling as a gesture to “advance”? Wouldn’t that have taken off somewhere other than overwrought marketing pages on Apple.com? Is it different than tapping?
- nemomarx 11mo agoWhat do you imagine would use that? I can only think of smooth scrolling on a web toon or something, but you would want much better color reproduction first.
- coffeefirst 11mo agoI remember the early days of the ipad 1 where publishers and technologists were stoked about all the cool new interactive things they could do with this format. It flopped. It turns out interactive infographics and scrollytelling are fun (and costly) to make but readers don't really like them. The smashing success story wasn't actually what you can do with the new devices' screen, it was audio. It turns out audiobooks (and podcasts) are a huge hit when the price is right and you make it accessible enough.
- jbullock35 11mo agoI keep waiting for the Kindle to allow notetaking by dictation. It works well on an iPad; it’s so much quicker and smoother than handwriting notes.
- A_D_E_P_T 11mo agoThree or four generations of Kindle Scribes since 2022. Still no new Kindle Oasis. At this rate I think my Oasis is going to be a family heirloom passed down the generations, as Amazon steadfastly refuses to release an ergonomic e-reader with buttons.
- borg16 11mo agoat this point it may be considered as form factor that has been deprecated, despite the advantages it brings
- criddell 11mo agoI have an Oasis and if I could buy a new one with USB-C, I would. In fact, I'd probably buy at least two so that I have a backup. The Scribe is interesting, but it's too small. Where's the 13" version? I want to mark up PDFs on a full size (A4 or Letter) display.
- ternus 11mo agoI'm afraid to replace the battery in mine, since it's glued together. It's only a matter of time before it's unusable. The latest Kindle software is already glacially slow on it (waiting multiple seconds for taps to register). I'd take the exact same form factor and screen but with the latest CPU and a new battery, even if it cost $300.
- ForHackernews 11mo agoKobo offers two separate models with buttons https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ereaders/kobo-ereaders-with-buttons https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ereaders/kobo-ereaders-with-butto...
- andrepd 11mo agoPocketBook and Kobo both have good alternatives. Go for them instead of Kindle.
- A_D_E_P_T 11mo agoI appreciate the tip, but I'm afraid my situation is more dire than I had let on. First, I'm already completely locked-in to the Amazon Kindle ecosystem. (Kindle jail.) I've literally purchased >1200 books via Amazon, and it would be serious labor (the work of months) to get them off the platform or, where possible, to download pirate copies. Amazon makes it extremely difficult. Second, books tend to be generally more expensive on Kobo/Rakuten. A few bucks here, a few bucks there... Over those ~1200 books, even if the average price difference was $3 (and I think that it was historically larger than that,) I'm down $3600. This is what made it hard to make the switch earlier. Lastly, there are quite a lot of books that are only available on Amazon. A lot of good old-time science fiction writers are now self-publishers. David Gerrold, for instance: > https://www.amazon.com/Praxis-II-Makes-Permanent-ebook/dp/B0FTWFN6K7 https://www.amazon.com/Praxis-II-Makes-Permanent-ebook/dp/B0... These books are available on Amazon, but not on Kobo/Rakuten's platform. So I'm pretty much stuck. I'd be happy to give Amazon more money if they made a reader similar to the 2019 Oasis. As things stand, I regret not pirating from day one.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 11mo agoI bought the older version for very cheap and have been really enjoying it. My daughter loves it: she reads on it and does homeworks on it. It's the "tablet" that kids could he allowed to use: slow refresh rate (no videogames), can only read books and write. And that's what she does! She reads books and writes on it, along with sketching or drawing mazes.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 11mo agoI think they are missing something important in the review, what they are saying it's incorrect. You CAN write directly, but only to PDFs. Epub and kindle get the notes slapped in a box of some kind. The other thing they miss is that most ereaders don't have access to kindle's huge book catalog. A few full-on android devices do, but given the very outdated version of android they have, they night get cut out (as is happening for some) from the Kindle app, so no more books.
- criddell 11mo ago> most ereaders don't have access to kindle's huge book catalog Are you saying there are a lot of exclusives in their catalog, or just that Kobo devices (for example) can't access DRM'd Amazon books in the same way Kindles cannot access DRM'd Kobo books? I've recently started buying books from Kobo even though my ereader is a Kindle just because I can strip the DRM from Kobo books.
- nemomarx 11mo agoIt's a combo - quite a lot of self published books are basically kindle exclusives and their Drm and format is now annoying to crack.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 11mo agoWhat nemnorax said, essentially some are kindle exclusives and it's annoying the get rid of the DRM. You can obviously ignore this fact, but console gamers had to deal with this for a long time and not mentioning it as a feature of the "device" is doing it a disservice.
- jabroni_salad 11mo agoSo far every image I've seen of this thing is too professional to trust. It looks like they solved the kaleido contrast problem, but none of the reviewers are actually saying that in the text. I'd really like an amateur side by side against something with a carta 1300 so I can judge the b/w contrast properly. ( if you are not familiar, here is a sample. The device on the left has a color screen. The extra layer causes the background to be darker: https://i.imgur.com/4W7YZu3.png https://i.imgur.com/4W7YZu3.png )
- criddell 11mo agoAmazon has a generous return policy. You could always order one to test it then return it if it's not good enough.
- packetlost 11mo agoI have both a Kindle Colorsoft (1st gen) and whatever the latest gen Paperwhite is and there's a noticeable contrast difference, but not nearly as bad as shown in that image. I find lack of sharpness to be more of a problem for very small fonts than the contrast. I actively use both. I toyed with getting a Scribe because I read a lot of full size PDFs which aren't a great experience with such low refresh rates and small screens, but opted for an iPad instead. I owned a ReMarkable 2 a few years ago and don't really have anything good to say about it.
- smileson2 11mo agohard to care about anything kindle since amazon started to remove download and transfer options, they are willing to pull the rug out from under you on anything and everything
- notepad0x90 11mo agoKindle/ePub and audio books are great, authors are publishing more content from what I've seen that would be prohibitive to do so with print. Personally, I need to not stare at a screen at some point and need to use print. It would be great if Amazon or someone else had a service that would take pdfs and epubs print them as mass market paperback and ships it to you. A lot of content is kindle/digital only these days unfortunately. I would think it won't cost > $20 per-print, I'd be willing to pay twice that plus shipping. Even for older books, you can only get used versions, and even then if you're lucky. It would be nice if the digital versions were available for on-demand printing.
- BobaFloutist 11mo agoI'm not an expert, but I think they'd probably have to negotiate additional rights with the authors, even for print-on-demand.
- notepad0x90 11mo agoeverybody wins. amazon, publishers, authors, they can all get more revenue. Especially for things like novellas, short stories, mangas,etc.. where mass market publication doesn't make sense. or to gauge interest prior to mass-market publication. But for existing works, you're right, that might be a pain, especially then the authors are deceased.
- jasonmarks_ 11mo agoI own last years Kindle Scribe model and enjoy reading with it. Technically, I probably just like e-ink devices and this was my first e-ink purchase. The Notebook's (now Workspace?) are a compelling experience but it is unclear how the syncing feature protects data privacy. Pen and paper still has a cozier vibe when trying to keep drafts of ideas secure. Two critiques: - Kindle would be a much better product if kindle.amazon.com took me to a dedicated UX that is not washed out by the e-commerce bloat that currently surrounds it. - You have to carefully purchase Kindle editions of books. There are definitely Kindle edition books for sale that are digitally scanned, imported, and compiled as a Kindle edition with no proof reading having occurred leaving you stuck with typo riddled messes.
- WillAdams 11mo agoI've _never_ read an ebook w/o finding at least one typo --- and that includes _Dune_ which I didn't download until after the ebook had been out for over a decade ("pogrom" was mis-spelled as "program" and there was an error in formatting in the glossary) --- but this happens w/ print books as well, my second printing of Tolkien's _The Fall of Arthur_ had a typo (which when reported, I was promised would be fixed in subsequent printings). The worst was the free copy of Heinlein's _Space Cadet_ I got from Sony on my PRS-505 because I was browsing their store on a day when they offered a $10 credit --- it was so riddled w/ typos that I had to get a print copy from the library to determine what some of them were.... the hilarious thing is that that "purchase" made me eligible for the ebook price fixing settlement, really should have kept and framed that check.
- jasonmarks_ 11mo ago> I've _never_ read an ebook w/o finding at least one typo This is unacceptable. Typo's are not just aggravating but as they accumulate they begin to veer towards mutating the authors original intent.
- WillAdams 11mo agoUnfortunately, ebooks as a technology are young, and editors aren't paid as much as they used to be --- if they're being employed to review books at all in some cases. Don't get me started on the typos in Lost Art Press's _Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of Henry O. Studley_ --- they mis-spelled the subject's name on the inside cover and duplicated one photo, so a pair of flat pliers is shown twice and there is not detail photo of the iconic twin pair of jeweler's pliers, and didn't do a "cancel" reprinting that page as any reputable publisher would.
- rcarmo 11mo agoI have a Supernote Nomad (https://taoofmac.com/space/reviews/2025/01/18/2335 https://taoofmac.com/space/reviews/2025/01/18/2335) and am quite pleased with it given I can sideload Obsidian and other Android apps for those extra geeky things I want to do occasionally on it. But I have been looking at newer devices with color (and backlights), although I wouldn’t want to get stuck in Amazon’s ecosystem…