First Kindle Scribe software update begins to close feature gap – Ars Technica

Amazon’s Kindle Scribe is a very nice device with one software problem — namely, that its operating system was designed with reading in mind, and the writing features feel uninhibited compared to a writing-focused tablet like the reMarkable 2.

Amazon announced today that it will “roll out regular free software updates” to Scribe this year, starting with a small update today that expands on some of Scribe’s existing features.

On the writing front, Scribe’s new update enables the use of Fountain Pen, Marker, and Pencil brush types, each of which includes five different thickness options (Scribe doesn’t support pressure sensitivity, so changing the thickness manually is the only way to make it lighter or heavier lines). There are also new features for organizing and navigating your notebooks – Scribe supports subfolders, and you can now jump directly to a specific page in a specific notebook like in a regular book instead of having to go back and forth one page at a time.

These updates are just the beginning, though Scribe still has a long way to go. Its inability to share with other devices remains its biggest weakness. You can email individual notebooks to yourself in PDF format, but unlike the re-correctable tablet, there’s no integration with cloud storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive. Other Kindle devices and apps can’t see handwritten annotations in books, and while the Kindle apps for smartphones and tablets can view notebooks created on Scribe, they can’t export or modify them. If Amazon can fill in some of these functionality gaps, it will make Scribe a much more attractive productivity device, as well as a huge e-reader.