The dawn of the e-reader was a glorious moment for me after years of lugging around dozens of pounds of books to satisfy my bibliophile needs. Amazon's Kindle line stood out from its initial basic text format onwards.
Now, Amazon has improved its new AI-powered Kindle Scribe with a couple of very useful and surprisingly intuitive new features. Other companies that make e-readers should take note, and conveniently, that's what the Kindle Scribe and its AI tools are designed to do.
Notably, while Amazon has marketed the Kindle Scribe as an e-ink note-taking device, the new Active Canvas facet of the e-reader lets you write notes over printed text, automatically sliding and ensuring sticky placement.
Refined chicken scratch
I'll be the first to admit that my handwriting has never been the clearest. I'm told it's perfect, but only for ransom notes and as a warning to kids reluctant to practice their handwriting. It only gets worse when you quickly take notes during a speech or interview. Trying to figure it out afterwards is as much an art as it is a science, but the Kindle Scribe seems to have no problem transforming even messy handwritten notes into readable text that's much easier to read.
As someone who has always preferred taking notes by hand rather than writing them down or transcribing audio, that's a big deal. AI maintains the charm of handwriting while keeping it useful. It's a quiet deployment of AI, but a sign that Amazon knows what Kindle Scribe users really want from AI tools.
From scattered to summarized
If you take a lot of notes, even if they are legible it does not mean that you have them organized. That's why the AI summary feature of the new Kindle Scribe is so attractive. As a journalist, I can read and take notes on a PDF announcement of a new product, then go and take notes on the speech given by the CEO of a company when it is presented, and also write my comments on what I think about it. try the product. . Kindle Scribe can summarize those scattered notes written over many hours or days into one or two neat paragraphs.
In fact, the AI may not always extract the most relevant points from the notes. There may be strange bits left over or valuable data left out, but at least from what I've seen, that's not a major problem with the Kindle Scribe's AI. I would have gladly paid an arm and a leg for such a performance when I was a student.
Once again, Amazon is using AI in the Kindle Scribe to retain the appeal of digital note taking while keeping things simple and streamlined. You don't need an avalanche of options and a wealth of possibilities with AI for a digital reader and a laptop. Improving basic writing and reading experiences with AI is no trick.
If the AI wearables fighting for sales this year had such obvious utility, they might not have any problems in the market. You may not think you need to refine your handwriting and summarize notes, but it's hard to imagine giving them up once you start using them. Amazon's AI may not be smarter than its rivals, but it's certainly employing it smarter here.