Nice piece David. But before you score one for the Evil Empire, consider scoring one for the more benign Canadian empire (Kobo). Their new Elipsa 2E device is great, and it actually allows you to write on books and not just PDFs etc., unlike the Scribe which has the clunky post-it note system (a shortcoming that can seemingly only be explained by the fact that Amazon would have to break its DRM system in order to permit writing on its books, but then how did Kobo solve this problem?). Also the Kobo has Dropbox (!), direct Overdrive library books access, and Pocket articles. Here's a recent review: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/kobo-elipsa-2e. Another interesting voice on this issue is a guy named Voja who has a Youtube site called My Deep Guide, his review has thus far dissuaded me from this device: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g37ZXAsn-2c. But I don't want to rain on your party (unless you are still within the Evil Empire's return window, an admittedly nice feature of theirs!), it is possible (and probably even likely) that Amazon will remedy some of the shortcomings with software updates. Also, if PDF reading is the main thing, have you tried any of the 13.3" screens? Very expensive but apparently terrific for this purpose (I haven't tried one). Onyx Boox Tab X and predecessors are in this space, but also SuperNote will come out with one in Q4 2023.
This is interesting, Malick! I had looked at earlier Kobo products and hadn't been impressed, but I missed this new one. I looked at the My Deep Guide review (well, the conclusion -- didn't have an hour to watch the whole thing!) and thought that he went overboard on the criticism of the software for the Scribe. For what I need it to do, it works fine. I would like Dropbox integration -- file transfer is still not ideal -- but otherwise I am quite happy with the device, and it was cheap. But glad to see that the competition is alive and well. Hope all is well with you.
Nice piece David. But before you score one for the Evil Empire, consider scoring one for the more benign Canadian empire (Kobo). Their new Elipsa 2E device is great, and it actually allows you to write on books and not just PDFs etc., unlike the Scribe which has the clunky post-it note system (a shortcoming that can seemingly only be explained by the fact that Amazon would have to break its DRM system in order to permit writing on its books, but then how did Kobo solve this problem?). Also the Kobo has Dropbox (!), direct Overdrive library books access, and Pocket articles. Here's a recent review: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/kobo-elipsa-2e. Another interesting voice on this issue is a guy named Voja who has a Youtube site called My Deep Guide, his review has thus far dissuaded me from this device: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g37ZXAsn-2c. But I don't want to rain on your party (unless you are still within the Evil Empire's return window, an admittedly nice feature of theirs!), it is possible (and probably even likely) that Amazon will remedy some of the shortcomings with software updates. Also, if PDF reading is the main thing, have you tried any of the 13.3" screens? Very expensive but apparently terrific for this purpose (I haven't tried one). Onyx Boox Tab X and predecessors are in this space, but also SuperNote will come out with one in Q4 2023.
This is interesting, Malick! I had looked at earlier Kobo products and hadn't been impressed, but I missed this new one. I looked at the My Deep Guide review (well, the conclusion -- didn't have an hour to watch the whole thing!) and thought that he went overboard on the criticism of the software for the Scribe. For what I need it to do, it works fine. I would like Dropbox integration -- file transfer is still not ideal -- but otherwise I am quite happy with the device, and it was cheap. But glad to see that the competition is alive and well. Hope all is well with you.