Some things just can’t be replaced, but technology will always aim to give it a try. Take the classic paper and pencil pad: very little does writing and sketching and drawing as something as easy as a pencil and paper. It just works everywhere.
But much like how the humble classic paper book became a piece of electronic ink you could take everywhere and load with hundreds more titles, it’s also possible for pen and paper to evolve slightly, as well.
Remarkable has already given the idea a whirl with its tablet, as has the iPad, several Android tablets, and even Kobo’s take on the eReader in both the Elipsa and the Libra Colour, models that offer pen support in either monochrome or colour (respectively).
Even Amazon has tried a pen and paper substitute of sorts in the Kindle Scribe, but up until now, the Australian release has been black and white only. Now with a Kindle Colour, there are more shades to the story, so to speak.
Set to arrive in June, Amazon will offer a Kindle Scribe in colour, coming in the u-less Scribe Colorsoft, a model that will see a custom Colorsoft display with support for writing and potentially drawing in colour.
Like other eReaders, the colour Kindle Scribe will largely be an eBook reader, compatible with the assortment of other things a Kindle can read, such as PDFs, ePubs, and titles from the Amazon Kindle store. However, the Scribe Colorsoft will not only render in colour, but also support note-taking with up to 10 pen colours and 5 highlighter colours, plus an AI-powered search that looks through notebooks and summaries what’s been written.
Drawing is also a possibility here, thanks to a shader tool that will work with the Kindle stylus.
“Australians are increasingly looking for ways to create moments of uninterrupted focus in a world full of constant notifications and distractions,” said Jacqui Corbett, Devices Country Manager for Amazon in Australia and New Zealand.
“The new Kindle Scribe lineup is designed to support clearer thinking, deeper focus and more intentional productivity, whether that’s journaling, planning your week, reading without interruptions, or capturing ideas as they happen,” she said.
Interestingly, there will be a few Scribe models to look at, covering degrees of the note-taking variation of Kindle.
The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft will be the only colour model, priced from $999 in a 32GB version or $1099 for 64GB, while a black and white edition will be priced from $849 for 32GB and $949 for 64GB. And if you can go without a front-light, a 16GB monochromatic Kindle Scribe sans light will be made available for $699, with the range landing on June 10.
