With Handwritten Search and Custom AI, the Viwoods AiPaper Finally Realizes Its Full Potential
Firmware update V3.16 brings global handwriting indexing, an infinite canvas, and third-party AI button mapping to the AiPaper and AiPaper Mini—making two of the sharpest E-Ink tablets feel like brand-new hardware.
In the crowded world of E-Ink note-taking tablets, hardware rarely tells the whole story. A razor-thin chassis and a crisp display might win over early adopters, but long-term staying power comes down to software maturity. With its latest firmware update—currently in beta ahead of a wider rollout on November 16 as version 3.16—Viwoods is delivering the kind of foundational overhaul that makes the original AiPaper and the compact AiPaper Mini feel like entirely new devices.
Search That Actually Reads Your Ink
The headline addition is one that digital note-takers have been clamoring for since launch: full search for handwritten notes. Previously, jotting down pages of meeting minutes, ideas, or daily logs meant relying on folders, outlines, or memory to track down a specific passage later. Now, handwriting is indexed and searchable across the entire operating system. Whether you use global search from the home screen, search within the Paper note-taking app, or comb through entries in the Daily planner, typing just a few letters surfaces matching ink strokes and highlights the exact word right on the page.
That search upgrade is paired with a major expansion in language support. Users can now configure the system interface, handwriting recognition, and image recognition across a much wider array of languages, including Swedish and other regional tongues previously left out. For anyone who uses the Daily app as a personal journal or task manager, being able to query both handwritten to-do items and freeform diary entries in their native language transforms the tablet from a passive digital notebook into an active personal knowledge base.
There is one practical catch to the new multilingual indexing: handwriting search is tied to the active recognition language. Notes written in another language while the device was previously locked to English settings will not reliably surface once you switch the recognition engine over. For international users making the switch, it effectively marks a clean slate for searchable ink going forward.
Breaking the Page Boundary—and Opening Up the AI Button
Beyond search, the update breaks down the rigid boundaries of the digital page with a new Unlimited Canvas mode—officially dubbed Mega Canvas. Designated by a subtle infinity icon, this mode lets writers and visual thinkers pan freely in any direction inside the Paper app to build sprawling mind maps, architectural sketches, or interconnected project boards. A handy corner minimap shows your exact position on the board and lets you jump across sections, while a quick one-tap reset snaps the zoom back to 1.0x without sacrificing stroke sharpness. Uniquely, Viwoods still allows users to add multiple distinct pages inside an unlimited canvas notebook, and every scribbled word remains fully searchable.
Just as significant is Viwoods' newfound openness around artificial intelligence. Earlier software revisions tethered the hardware AI button to the company's built-in assistant. Now, users can remap that physical button in settings to launch their own preferred third-party AI app and subscription service, such as Google Gemini or ChatGPT. For power users already paying for tiers like Gemini Pro, a single press summons their assistant of choice over any open app, turning the E-Ink slate into a distraction-free research terminal without forcing them into a proprietary ecosystem.
Combined with the tablets' existing Quick Refresh display mode—which enables remarkably fluid scrolling in web browsers and Android apps while automatically clearing E-Ink ghosting the moment motion stops—this software release closes the gap between Viwoods' ambitious hardware and its everyday workflow. Rather than saving its best tricks for a next-generation successor, Viwoods has given current AiPaper and AiPaper Mini owners a compelling reason to fall in love with their digital paper all over again.
Watch video here:
Please subscribe to my channel
Comments
Post a Comment