Amazon launched four new Kindles this week, perhaps the biggest launch day in the 17-year history of the company’s wildly successful e-reader. One of them is even available in color! It is no coincidence that the launch took place about a year after Panos Panay joined the company. Panay, a longtime Microsoft executive who spent years in charge of all things Windows and Surface, now leads the devices and services team at Amazon. His big task is Alexa and turning Amazon’s assistant into the AI ​​platform of the future. Apparently that’s coming soon. Maybe. But first: e-readers.

In this episode of The VergecastPanay joins the show to talk about how he decided to join Amazon, why people love their Kindles so much, the Scribe’s new note-taking features, that new color screen and more. He also addresses the ongoing trend towards distraction-free gadgets, and perhaps gives us a few hints about future AI features.

If you’d like to learn more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, starting with the gadget news of the week:

And in the lightning round: