My Kindle Scribe Feature Wishlist

Don't want the back-story & just came for the list? Click here.

I've had a Kindle since Christmas Day 2010. It was a Kindle Keyboard 3G: one of those with a free mobile internet connection so you could download new books on the fly, hassle free. My mum got it for me for Christmas and, twelve-years-and-counting later, it's still going strong. I've always loved it^[1], and I've regularly been tempted to upgrade to a new model but didn't because, well, I had no reason too. None of the following models added anything I needed or even that I particularly coveted.

Amazon's long-discontinued Kindle Keyboard 3G

For twelve years there was only really one thing I could think of that would make me want to upgrade my Kindle to a new model. For twelve years I waited.

And then it came.

An e-reader that I could use to make and store handwritten notes was the dream. It started to be introduced as a feature in competing devices, but I'd bought into the Amazon ecosystem^[2] and losing access to all of the books I'd invested in over the years put me off making the change. Finally, towards the end of 2022, Amazon released the Kindle Scribe, their first model with a stylus pen and the ability to handwrite notes. I asked my family to give me Amazon gift cards for Christmas and used them to take the edge off what is a pretty pricey device.

Amazon's latest (& arguably biggest) update to the Kindle family: The Kindle Scribe

This is not a review of the Scribe. There are plenty of those out there already, and there's not much I can add to them: It's a solidly-built, weighty device. The e-reader side of things does appear to have undergone twelve years of development compared to my previous^[3] one, with tweaks and updates that I'm genuinely finding interesting and useful. The notetaking aspect's hardware is remarkable^[4], making it feel very close to the experience of actually writing things, and the pen is pretty good^[5]. The software side of things feels a tad underdeveloped. This is all pretty standard content as far as the reviews go: I read a lot before finally parting with the cash and most of them agree pretty closely on all of these aspects.

Whilst I have seen a lot of mild disappointment on the software front (accompanied by optimism that this can always be rectified by Amazon in future updates, and surely will be), I haven't seen a clear list of the things that are missing from the Scribe experience.

I thought I'd produce one:

Things I Want the Kindle Scribe to Do that it Doesn't Do Yet

A list by Thomas Briggs, age 40 & 4 months

These are all things I'm pretty sure can be updated in a software release without requiring any hardware changes, and with any luck I'll be able to come back every so often and cross a few off. If I've missed something and can cross something off now please do let me know (including how to do it, of course).

• Decent page backgrounds/templates and/or the ability to customise or edit existing ones, or better still, create your own
• Bookmarks & tagging, e.g. for pages, groups of pages, or regions on pages
• Hyperlinking to other pages (inc. pages within other notebooks)
• Handwriting recognition & convert to text
• Annotate any pdf, no matter now it gets onto the device (so far they have to be emailed to the "send to Kindle" address for your Scribe)
• Export a page (or set of pages) from any book or document on my Scribe to a format that can be written on directly
• Lasso select, copy, paste, etc
• Insert/ add space (i.e. shift everything down from a chosen location so that you can add in more writing)
• Infinite scroll/zoom
• View notes in Kindle app on PC (this can already be done in the Android app)
• Edit notes in Kindle app on other devices, including PC (e.g. using a drawing tablet)
• Ability to move pages between notebooks
• Better organisation options. So far it's just a single-level folder system, like a real-world filing system. If I wanted a real-world filing system I'd have one.
• Better export options. So far, it's possible to send an entire notebook to a specific email address as .pdf, but options to export single pages as .png would be a start.
• Export to (or, better, sync with) a handwriting tool available on other systems (a Kindle Scribe app for Windows & Android would be awesome. Some form of sync with OneNote would be the dream)
• Shape drawing tools (or 'smart' shape recognition)
• Some different pen & highlighter styles & shapes^[6]
• A stamping tool for small shapes & icons, such as those used in bullet journaling (e.g. tickboxes)

A lot of these boil down to the Kindle Scribe's limitations being almost exactly the same as those of a real paper notebook. I'm hoping this is an indication that a lot of work has been done to recreate such a notebook as they're the primary contender for this aspect of its functionality, with the plan to extend functionality making more use of the digital domain as time goes on.

A lot of them boil down to wanting the note-taking functionality to become as close to OneNote as is possible within the restrictions of the hardware. I know that's a tall ask, so it's not an expectation, but might work as a guidebook for my desires.

A bonus, Kindle-wide wish:

• Either do something with the "experimental browser" or get rid of it.

As far as I can tell it's the one thing that's no different between my two Kindles, twelve years apart. I don't want to be able to browse the internet fully on my Kindle - one thing I like about having a Kindle rather than just using an e-reader app elsewhere is that it removes some of the potential distractions that plague my other devices, but if there is a browser I want to be able to use it for something like loading up my ToDoist list, or showing my calendar. An RSS reader would be fantastic. But to have a web browser that does almost nothing (it won't even load the log-in screen for some hotel (etc) WiFi services) is far more frustrating than its complete absence would be.

Footnotes:

1. No, that's not an invitation for an avalanche of reasons why you don't like e-readers and why real books are better. I love real books too. The either/or argument is moot; it's a false dichotomy; we can have both in our lives. [back]
2. I originally typoed this as "echosystem". [back]
3. Weeelll, it hasn't been fully retired just yet. It's just on a reduced hours timetable. [back]
4. No pun intended, nor any copyright infringement relating to one of it's main competitors. [back]
5. I went for the pricier option which I'm not sure is necessary, but being able to flip the ben around to erase mistakes makes it very natural to use. I do wish it had a way to attach a wrist-strap though: yesterday I very nearly dropped it through a crack in a lecture room's seating system, and I'd've never got it back had it landed in a slightly different position. Not such a problem with a biro, but this is fifty quid of pen. [back]
6. A software update a few days after I posted this wishlist added some new pen styles plus more options for the highlighter and eraser tools [back].