Hacker News Reader

Comment by ianbooker | Hacker News Reader

For years I was extremely interested in an e-Ink tablet for reading scientific papers, but while the technology and hardware became more and more available, I realized that there is no scenario that such hardware would ship with software able to properly annotate PDF documents in an interchangeable format (like valid PDFs f.E.). And that this would be stable and supported for some reasonable time.

Source: My experience with Android tablets, iOS and Linux PDF-Software and every presentation of eInk-tablets seen so far, where this is never really part of their pitch.

View on HN

That's the exact purpose I got a reMarkable 2 for, and have been so glad that I did. It's not perfect, but it's a far better experience than using a tablet, laptop or print-out.

Me too! My rM2 has quickly become one of my most-used daily devices, between note-taking, reading/annotating PDFs, reading ebooks and doing sudokus.

I strongly suggest you try this out https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable-hacks

For me it's been a game changer

Is there any solution that allows handwritten and typewritten notes to mix?

What I'm thinking is while I'm at the computer, being able to use something like OneNote (not exactly OneNote, just for example) to be able to see and type notes. When I wander away from the computer, use rM2 and see all the notes I just typed.

I guess the idea I'm thinking of is how I can use something like OneNote on my desktop, laptop, and tablet, and enter and view notes on any of them easily.

My understanding is that even though there are ways to see your rM2 notes on a computer, it's a bit clunky and not seamless. More of an "export from rM2".

I got the onyx boox max 3 for a while now.

While it would run a complete Android OS, I mainly use it to transfer PDFs of papers/books onto the tablet, annotate them with handwriting and transfer the PDFs back to my laptop if needed. The annotations are stored directly into the PDF and all readers I tried it with can read it.

It was expensive, but it saves me from some Monitor time each day, which was worth it for me. Especially the A4 format of the tablet makes it very nice, it really ist just like a pice of paper with a pen to annotate it and that's why I enjoy it.

This lack of reliable handwriting is definitely an annoying point to me too. That being said, why do you think it won't get any better? Judging by their ads, Sony DPT-RP1 looked great in this respect. (I wonder if the actual experience matched the ad, though.) Furthermore, I wonder what you're referring to about interchangeability: are the current annotated PDFs somehow not interchangeable?

I have a DPT-RP1 and use it for reading (and annotating) PDFs. It's excellent provided you accept its limitations. It really is a single use device for reading PDFs. That said, I also use it for handwritten notes (easy to export as PDF) and for presenting on-line (convert slides to PDF, use the screen viewer and you can do live annotations--great for remote lecturing).

Limitations... Sony has annoyed me very much with astonishing limitations on a previous laptop. This has seriously tainted the way I see them despite the otherwise great products they build.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com