E-reader to feature handwriting option

I like to highlight passages in my e-books. But if I get Amazon’s “Kindle Scribe,” I can also add my handwriting to the margins or even all over the page.

The new tablet’s 10.2-inch screen, like the Kindle Paperwhite, mimics natural writing on paper. It doesn’t have the bright colors of other tablets, but is great for reading and writing. A basic digital pen is included, and there’s a premium pen for an extra $30. The premium pen has a digital eraser at the top and a customizable shortcut button. Neither one uses batteries.

Besides adding handwritten notes to the book you’re reading, with the Scribe you can handwrite your memoir, sign documents, make shopping lists or create art. Your notes and drawings are kept in one place for tidiness. I would have preferred to see my scribbles in the margins as I’m flipping through the pages of my book, but at least I could get to them easily. The Scribe comes out on November 30 for $340, but you can order it now.

ARE YOU A ROBOT?

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of having to prove I’m not a robot, by picking out pictures of traffic lights, crosswalks and the like. I also hate looking up passwords. But things are looking up. Facial and palm recognition are spreading.

You can now use your palm to pay for groceries at 65 Whole Foods stores in California. Your palm is scanned at a kiosk and linked to your credit card info. From then on, you can wave your palm instead of your card.

“Q5id” is a new palm and facial recognition system sold to businesses for their customers and employees. It’s run by “J. Peterman,” as the actor John O’Hurley was known on the TV show “Seinfeld.” O’Hurley got involved when he noticed how realistic “deep fakes” are becoming. It would be easy, he says, to tank a stock by putting out a video pretending to be the CEO of a company.

In a Q5id world, security risks should drop dramatically. Hacking cost Americans $56 billion in fraud last year.

FREE EV CHARGING

■ “Adopt a Charger” is a nonprofit that offers free chargers at National Parks and ten states, including nine chargers in Arkansas. Go to adoptacharger.org and click “where we are” to see the whole list.

■ Some car manufacturers also offer free charging. You can get it for the new Ford F-150, the Nissan Ariya, the Kia EV6, the Audi e- tron GT and RS e-tron GT, and Porsche electric vehicles.

■ “Volta” offers hundreds of free super chargers for 30 minutes, after which you need to pay. They’re scattered throughout the U.S. with hundreds in the South, but aren’t in Arkansas yet.

JUST THE FACTS, MA’AM

FactCheck.org is a good way to check up on things people say or emails they send you. I searched on: “Did President Joe Biden authorize the sale of part of the U.S. Strategic Oil Reserve to China?” Factcheck. org says he did. About one million barrels of crude oil from the reserve are available for sale daily to the highest bidding company. Some of those firms sell the oil to China. To me, that’s nothing to worry about, but I used FactCheck to prove it to a skeptical friend.

YOUTUBE SHORTS

YouTube Shorts are much shorter versions of YouTube videos. Their latest feature is the ability to add your own voice-over to a preexisting video. For more info, do a search on “how to make your own YouTube Short.”

Compared to TikTok, YouTube Shorts may be more accurate. A fact-checking organization called NewsGuard found that 20% of TikTok’s info is wrong. In the last six months of 2020, they removed over 340,000 videos for fake news about the 2020 presidential election and over 50,000 videos about covid-19.

AMAZON IS WATCHING YOU

Some people get refunds by returning e-books after they’ve read them. I have three words for them: Amazon’s watching you.

According to the Authors Guild, “BookTok influencers” encourage people to get e-books for nothing. You buy the e-books, read them, and get a refund. But Amazon is fighting back. Now, if you’ve read more than 10% of your e-book, you can’t get a refund without talking to customer service.

INTERNUTS

■ “Native American Timeline,” from LegendsofAmerica.com, starts with their arrival in America between 16,000 and 8,000 B.C. The first kidnapping in America occurred in 1524, when Italian explorers took an Indian child to France.

■ On replicate.com, click “text to Pokemon,” to get a search engine that turns your words into a Pokemon game character. I tried “Batman,” “Abraham Lincoln” and “Nancy Pelosi.” You can download your creations.

■ “Firefighting Robot Spot.” Search on those words to see a robot dog that can open doors, put out fires, conduct visual inspections, get on and off an elevator on its own, and use a key card to get into restricted areas.