The reMarkable as a notebook and eBook reader
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This is the biggest minus point for me. I want devices that I own, that I can use like I want to. I don't want to be caught in another cloud and pay monthly for something I don't want to use.
Currently I'm looking into getting a device from Onyx, because those support the Android App Stores, so I could set it up with Notion or my Nextcloud probably.
Remarkable seems to have better hardware (as in screen and writing), though.
edit: lots of people mentioning that you have SSH on the Remarkable. Good thing, but fiddling with shell scripts (yeah, no big deal for others, new for me) to sync with a cloud service of your choice... not sure I want that.
As an aside, I also use this drawing (Krita) graphics tablet Kamvas Pro 12 GT-116 as an external monitor, just for anyone looking for a "drawing workflow extension" of some sort. I have used Sketch on the SG2 that's pretty nice too.
One of the nice features of the remarkable device is that they allow you to ssh on the device and run your software on it. There is a community who builds various tools that run on the device. I didn't check recently but I'm pretty sure you have one or more open options to sync your content to your remote storage of choice.
According to the website the subscription model is for syncing your content to ANY cloud storage
No Sub: No cloud storage of any kind $5/mo: Unlimited cloud storage on their servers $8/mo: Google Drive / Dropbox support
https://remarkable.com/store/connect
Thanks but no thanks. I'm not paying anyone $8/mo for the privilege of storing my digital content on another platform. That's bullshit.
https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/44082491463...
I write software that can connect to 3rd party services. It takes a lot of effort to make sure it all works. There's always stuff that breaks randomly, and it's really hard to debug because you typically get only vague error messages when something fails, and you can't debug from the server side.
So you end up spending way too much time making sure your product is compatible with some service, just so your customers can spend money on 3rd party services that you don't earn money from.
With your app you don't have a hardware business to support you.
You're free to not like it, but that's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the fact that this is one of the few platforms where I can ssh onto the underlying Linux host and run my damn software and extend it in various ways, which includes syncing docs with whatever storage system I want. Surely, this is for "hackers" use only. This is what I like about this and I'm happy to accept the tradeoff.
If anything, it does the opposite: if I'll get paid whether I add a feature or not, why spend the money to add the feature when I could just pocket the money?
That's why companies love the subscription model so much: Instead of having to find compelling new features and updates to sell new versions or attract new customers, they can just sit back, put their feet up and the money keeps flowing in.
It is not an incentive, but a criteria. I often wished Remarkable would be brought up by big companies with more resources to work on it. But most companies these days aren't interested in making better products. Not to mention the possibilities of ruining it.
I know subscription pricing isn’t popular around here, but these wild speculations about how things work are getting a little silly. Especially coming from people who, I’m guessing, don’t use that many subscription apps.
(Not saying this is the most fiscally responsible position to take, just a far more 'normal' one.)
No need to include new features, they can be sold for a one-off optional fee to old device users. Subscription is worse here: it provides weaker feedback from users to the developers, who have a harder time knowing if the new features are useless or damaging to the user experience. Products don't always benefit from constant gratuitous updates.
Since subscription has been Wall Street's fetish for a few years now, it's safe to say they have aspirations of going public sometime in US exchanges.
Well... isn't that the advantage of subscription? If you stop using it you don't have to pay monthly for it anymore.
It's a business that is subsidised by the ever increasing busyness of life and rising rates of executive dysfunction (there's a population that struggles to keep up with admin tasks on a neurological level and it's biologically determined)
They have an incentive to get as many paying customers as possible but not necessarily turn them into engaged users. It can come too close to a racket depending on how discerning of a consumer you are
For this reason, I prefer devices running exclusively free software. I can be sure that I will always own them and that security updates will never end, if the device is still used by the community.
Debian clearly separates security and non-security-related updates. I wish more projects did that.
> I can be sure that I will always own them and that security updates will never end, if the device is still used by the community.
How do you ensure that someone else will write a security patch for you?
No, I want to able to have updates independently on the vendor who may want to stop updating the device. This is exactly why free software was created. Experience shows that just this ability is enough to have lifetime updates from the community for any device. Or, alternatively, one can pay to anyone for the updates, if necessary. My 12+-year-old laptop runs latest version of Debian and I do not expect to stop receiving security updates any time soon.
For example, one might want to get security updates.
So you do want an ongoing service, you just don't want to pay for it?
I have old versions of a few applications and am happy with their current functionality. I can choose to not have a support contract and still use them. If I encounter problems later, I can choose to pay more for the latest.
I wouldn't want to run unmaintained software these days - security nightmare.
Same for Adobe Suite. Used to be available for a one-time fee.
That they have both shifted to subscription models suggests it's a move designed to please equity analysts rather than any kind of added value for the customer.
So it sounds like you do, in fact, own this particular device when you buy it. You could write applications for syncing files to your OwnCloud instance or whatever you’d like.
Worth noting that if you bought the device before October this year, then you get a free subscription - which is what I am using currently, but good to know that I can just swap it out if I want to
Until they disable it via an update because their cloud offering isn't making them enough money?
But it wouldn't be unheard of, but as a owner of one, I'm not really scared of it happening. Although if it would, the device would lose one of it's main buying point (for me at least) and I certainly wouldn't buy any more devices from them.
Edit: also, I believe one of the people in that reddit thread might have the correct answer; the eInk drivers (and probably more notably the waveform) will be proprietary and they do probably worry about losing their license if they publish anything they are not allowed to. Which would end their business immediately.
Buying stuff from entities violating whatever will only solidify what they are doing. Support isn’t spending time any way with gpl stuff. They aren’t going to read a paying customers complaints any more than any one else.
In addition to the license compliance issues, I assume these cheap Chinese devices are siphoning off all my data to parts unknown. The last I checked, you couldn't even root the thing.
I trust reMarkable more, so I might eventually buy one to replace the Mars. But a device like the Onyx/Boyue e-ink tablets that was more open (ideally: running LineageOS) would be close to ideal.
Edit: I forgot about the PineNote, which is probably the best option on the horizon for those who don't trust these Chinese Android distros: https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ - I should probably go pre-order one :)
I'd love to develop apps for PineNote (or reMarkable even), but I am being realistic when I say that I won't get around to it.
I mean, yeah, as much as it sounds fun, I pay for things like this to have more time/ease doing other stuff (drawing, taking notes, etc), so this seems to defeat the point.
iPad Pro + paperwhite + concepts and procreate does the job for me for that specific reason. I know that otherwise I’d get derailed and just start hacking things together instead of doodling
Remarkable has a plastic layer to improve writing feel and optimized software to get pen latency down. The Oynx Note Air 2 supposedly also has improved writing feel but I'm not sure how it compares.
The reMarkable feels like writing on paper. The Note Air 2 feels like writing on a piece of plastic. The reMarkable wins there.
The latency on both is about the same, in my opinion. The reMarkable might hesitate when you erase something big, but then it's completely gone. Switching pages takes just enough time to be annoying. On the Note Air 2, erasing is just as laggy. But, page switches are almost instantaneous. BUT, you will see a shadow of the previous page literally every time you switch pages.
For my money, the RM2 is worth it compared to the note air series.
I'm sure RM feel is better but I bring up it's a plastic layer/nib feel and not something specifically built into the device. It's possible to get a better writing feel with a screen protector and a different nib on the Note Air. For me, writing is secondary to reading and the RM is just too limited in that regard.
If you want to roll your own you can get an arduino attached to a recycled kindle display with wifi - i love this idea (but touch support is just emerging) https://inkplate.io/
RM2 works great offline and does not need any network connection to do its main job. I think you will find you won't really need updates if you use it the same way as me.
And yes, as they mentioned it is enough FOSS friendly that there is quite a community of tinkerers around it
If you can accept that you don't want to fiddle with shell scripts, then why is paying someone else for the privilege so far beyond the pale?
And why is there a recurring fee for this? Do they need to do this integration every month again? Ok, there might be some ongoing effort to keep the API working, but is that 8 Euro/month from thousands/millions of users?
The problem is that hardware companies don't want to be hardware companies anymore, but they want to be _everything_ else, too.
I dislike this.
I would strongly caution you run away. Worst customer support I’ve ever experienced.
Edit: I will never understand people that downvote a warning like this. But HN, you do you, I have karma to burn and if this warning helps one other person I’ll consider it worth it.
I waited about 2 weeks before I complained because COVID and all that. After 3 weeks of absolutely zero package movement (stuck in the same location) they refused to give a refund. I filed a dispute and finally got my refund after it sat around in a shipping facility for over a month.
The entire time Remarkable provided incorrect and misleading instructions for my return. Often calling it a replacement. At one point their service manager actually said they were refunding me and then about 30 minutes later retracted it and said they’d only refund me when they had the return in their hands.
I provided a full timeline of their horrible support to my credit company, I can dig that up if you want the full rundown on their awful handling of a simple return.
I was going to say that such things happen, but your chat with the service manager sealed my feelings on the matter. They could see just as well as you that DHL had the notebook, not you, and they should've eaten the loss.
The other comments here are reMarkably negative too. I was briefly tempted to get one, but I'll wait for whoever the Vive of this space turns out to be.
A feature I love about GoodNotes on an iPad is it can search hand written notes. If I’m going to write a ton in something that isn’t as easily skimmed as a real notebook search needs to be a thing.
The other thing I find annoying is buying the pencil tips. Apparently the Remarkable ones need replacement often. Sort of mind blowing.
All in all the writing experience was nice. But the device and the features were not there. If these things survive another 3-4 generations of devices then I think we may get to a place they’re maybe ready for more mass usage. I hope in that time the company that also provides reasonable support rises to the top lol.
Not really. It comes with 8 or 10 tips. I go through a tip in a month with very active use. New tips are pretty cheap and come in a batch. Sorry don’t remember the cost.
I'm always suspicious though of heavy affiliate links and when every review on a product (1000+) are all 4-5 stars. I know it's not but it screams to me of the dropshipping popup sites.
If you see a company advertising heavily on social media sites, and Remarkable is everywhere for me on social media sites, they're basically throwing all their money at advertising and all other areas of their business are getting the short end and suffering.
With the recent news they're moving subscription for their various services I think it's clear Remarkable is likely to die in a couple years.
Video reviews/tutorials are often the way to go because they tend to be more up to date (you can't fiddle with the Youtube publish date the way you can with a blog site). Additionally, the tutorials can help demonstrate niche features and whether they function as expected.
I think the way they do returns is pretty unfriendly compared to other electronic companies I've gone through this with. I was going to exchange my tablet after I bricked it, and they wouldn't send a replacement until they received and processed the return. Based on the label, the return center is in Hong Kong (IIRC), so it probably takes a while to get the replacement even if everything goes according to plan. I ended up recovering the device myself (that ordeal's another story, but that's entirely my fault) so fortunately I just had a week without use of it, not a month+.
I would expect it to be beneficial to them to send the replacement first along with a return box, then charge for a whole new device if the return isn't received on time. Maybe that only works if you have the scale and resources to build such a system that companies like Amazon have.
But yes, part of the hassle was the return to Hong Kong I suspect. That said though, it shouldn't be on me to foot the bill for a product until their shipping company can deliver it to them. If I chose the shipping company, then sure, I guess I can see that. But it was their label, their return site, their rules, and I'm just stuck footing the bill until the product gets returned. What would they have done if it never actually arrived? Would I still be footing the bill? I had to file the dispute because the time period was running out on being able to do so AND I was then outside their 30 day return period because of the lengthy delay in their shipping provider moving the product. I sent it back less than a week after I got it, but it took another month for the stupid thing to end up in their hands.
Anyway, yea. It was entirely self inflicted by Remarkable. My assumption is they've been burned by people returning incorrect products or something, but if they handle it this way they're just upsetting legitimate returns.
I wasn't entirely dissatisfied with the product, it just wasn't in a state I could use it right now. Had the return gone better I may have purchased a newer version down the road. Now however, I will avoid them at all costs, and I am being vocal about it ... all they had to do was treat the customer appropriately and this all could've been very different for them. It just goes to show how important good customer support is.
Have you tried giving feedback directly to the company? They feel like a small enough operation that they may actually listen.
I advise people review other eink tablet options before considering Remarkable.
Addendum:
At some point, months later the issue was resolved via a software update. This issue was originally discovered a few days after unboxing and using the device. I did not expect the return process to be non-existent or refusal.
My wife got me a replacement because that is how she is.
I contacted the company to see if there was anything I could to try and fix the old one ... I am not opposed to opening it up an poking around.
They suggested I send them pictures of the damage then replied that it should not have happened and exchanged with a replacement.
Noting that at no point did I ask them for anything and took full responsibility (in writing) for the impact I assume caused the failure.
I have nothing but high praise for their "support".
With that said:
> Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
Interesting and useful reading: the first two paragraphs of your original comment.
Boring reading that detracts from the HN experience:
> Edit: I will never understand people that downvote a warning like this. But HN, you do you, I have karma to burn and if this warning helps one other person I’ll consider it worth it.
> ah yes, there's always that stickler for the "rules." What would we ever do without that person chiming in.
1. Custom file system: this means I can ssh into it, but I can't rsync my bibliography into it, since it won't display regular pdf files whose name is not hashed and registered in some sort of index. Moreover, the lack of a Linux client meant it was very hard to put my pdfs on it, or extract my notes from it.
2. Left hand support is ridiculous. They just flip the screen left-to-right; which means you lose the nice bevel and it becomes very uncomfortable to use in "handheld" mode. Finally, the "close" button gets placed on the top-left corner of the screen, which is the first place a left-handed writer touches.
3. The lack of some sort of backlight and slightly gray background means I can't read under suboptimal light. Sure, I get it, its e-ink; but for the price they charge, it would be a very nice-to-have feature.
I ended up returning mine and went for the Samsung Galaxy Tab s7 and that thing is amazing! Plus, I get to follow through bibliography immediately without needing to go back to my computer and get another article then do the whole sync'ing dance again.
FWIW, rmfuse [0] allows you to mount the reMarkable cloud and you have easy access to sync with real filenames.
[0] https://github.com/rschroll/rmfuse
> RMfuse provides access to your reMarkable Cloud files in the form of a FUSE filesystem. These files are exposed either in their original format, or as PDF files that contain your annotations. This lets you manage files in the reMarkable Cloud using the same tools you use on your local system.
I did find a few similar projects back when I had the reMarkable, but none quite worked well for me. I'm sure this will help some other people out there though! :)
2. Also left handed. I just turn off the menu when I'm drawing/writing, so the close button and everything else is fine until I need it. However, what annoys me is that the pen's mark on the screen is about 0.2mm off from the tip of the contract point, to account for the angle of the pen and the thickness of the screen glass. While it's a subtle problem, it is noticeable.
3. I don't think this is a cost issue, it's battery life. I'm happy with their choice, and you certainly can't please everybody
I know, but I often forgot to turn off the menu when annotating a pdf, and would close the pdf as soon as I touched the screen. After a few dozen repetitions it got quite annoying!
> [...] However, what annoys me is that the pen's mark on the screen is about 0.2mm off from the tip of the contract point, to account for the angle of the pen and the thickness of the screen glass. While it's a subtle problem, it is noticeable.
Interesting! I don't think I noticed that
> 3. I don't think this is a cost issue, it's battery life. I'm happy with their choice, and you certainly can't please everybody
You can always turn the light on or off, preserving the battery life. I found that reading something on a rainy day could be challenging depending on where I sat on the house. For a 500 euro device, I thought it was a bit of a shame.
I find the reMarkable a truly interesting device but I feel that I do not have time to tinker with it as it currently is, so for the moment I am on an iPad (use it for sheet music and PDF annotation)
For about the same $400 (the device after a year is going to cost you $400 either way; if owned for 3 years it'll have a TCO of nearly $600) you can get a used iPad Air 3 and Pencil and do everything the reMarkable can do, with your choice of screen size...a screen that is color, backlit, higher resolution, full motion. Excellent pressure and angle sensitivity from the stylus. Cellular connectivity, if you want it. Full multimedia capabilities, video conferencing/calling, web browsing, the entire suite of iOS apps. If you have a Mac, all the desktop integration features. Your choice of private or cloud based backup and sync, no device modification needed. And top-notch on-device biometric security.
Oh, and an iPad can do on-device dictation and handwriting recognition/cleanup. The reMarkable cannot do on-device writing recognition - only via their cloud, which costs $8/month. And requires storing your documents with a company that is based in Hong Kong, which means "freely available to CCP intelligence services."
I've used eInk readers for probably close to a decade and a half - I started with the original Sony reader - and sorry, but eInk still has significant limitations for any sort of interactivity. It's better than it was ten years ago, but I think "physical pixels being flipped end-to-end in a viscous media" has an inherent maximum refresh rate that they'll never get past and the technology will never get past static low power displays and e-reader devices. I don't even see it surviving much longer given how far OLED displays are coming; they offer all the same low-power advantages, better contrast ratios, and full color / high refresh rates. Not as good full-sunlight readability, though.
This
If these are the killer features you're looking for, the RM is delightful. I've been using mine for over a year, almost every single day. I would love to see the software services flesh out a bit more, but honestly, that's icing on the cake.
A rock-solid paper note-taking replacement that doubles as a highlightable PDF reader and has no "apps" - I'm sold!
Is it really on the way? Is there an ETA?
- Searching and organisation is really difficult. I wish everything would be OCRed transparently and you could instantly search for it (while keeping the original graphics)
- It's unfortunate that the OCR runs on their cloud. It would be really perfect if it was a web app that you could install on your own servers, if you have hightened security requirements for example
- In the UI, there is an on screen keyboard and you have to press keys. Why can't you just write in the text fields?
I think most of these problems come down to the fact that the OCR is some "secret sauce" provided by a third party. I wonder if there is any viable free handwriting OCR one could use instead to build a better experience (open source, source available, or even just some research papers)?
My biggest issue with the rm2 is not any specific feature, but the total and complete lack of support for 3rd party software. The people behind the device make great hardware, and nice device drivers, but kind of suck at user facing software. They should stop trying to do the front end stuff, and just give us the ability to let the community do it ourselves.
Seriously though, the value of some scripts that set a baseline would be enough for many people to finish the rest of the work!
This device is basically completely un-trustable.
Leaking information related to financial stuff, research, invention, product design, or legal/government work. For a publicly traded company any manner of documents / notes on a device like this could spell trouble.
Plus, if they're able to identify something you don't want others to know, they have leverage on you.
erm... it's a Norwegian company
Is it perfect? Far from it. There are lots of silly UI decisions that make no sense (e.g. limited pen size) and clunky modal menu system. So there is room for improvement. Why they don't incorporate the ddvk remarkable hacks into an update in one quick update I do not know - the ddvk hacks change the remarkable from a good device to a great one. See here:
https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable-hacks
But otherwise, I would recommend strongly for these specific use-cases. I still have to have a laptop with me occasionally, and sometimes an iPad. But if I am reading a PDF it is always with the Remarkable.
The battery life is pretty amazing, the lack of eye-strain fantastic, carrying a ton of books that I can catch up with wonderful. Digital note taking is the best in class due to the screen and pen/nib combination. (Yes lack of search and OCR is a bit annoying but I don't really use it, even on the iPad in Notability).
Anyway, I wanted to offer these thoughts from someone who reads a lot on the remarkable and takes notes daily.
Wish it had: More pen sizes, different highlight shades, easier syncing, iCloud support, better tools for cropping pdfs before sending them, etc.
Would I buy again: Yes.
The remarkable does have a superior screen writing feel by far. That was much more important to me in the end.
I won’t lie, I miss the Boox ability to customise the UI and install tons of things.
But I find the simple on/off notes and reading with remarkable just works for me.
Main thing people like about the Remarkable is writing feel which mainly comes down to the surface and the pen nib. You can literally use the RM pen and nibs on the Boox Air and a matte screen protector. MyDeepGuide on YouTube has recommendations on how to get a better feel on the Boox Note Air.
For my use, I have had zero issues with the Boox pen or screen latency. Boox is superior on multiple fronts when it comes to overall usefulness, as it's running Android, so I can use exactly the file explorer I want (Solid Explorer). The PDF formatting options, such as increasing ink darkness and contrast levels make things like color magazines a lot easier to see and read.
The frontlit screen is such an obvious feature that I'm shocked that RM2 still does not have it. Boox does.
I so hope they're not ruining their next device with anti-customisation and aggressive subscription or partner service marketing.
With a frontlight layer, there's a greater gap between the pen and the e-ink layer, and it makes more of a difference than you'd think in terms of pen feel. (Even the Remarkable 2 isn't that great here because the non-frontlit protective layer feels thicker than it needs to be; Fujitsu did a super job with the Quaderno Gen 2; the pen feels like it's actually in contact with the e-ink surface.) There's also a subtle loss of contrast with the additional frontlight layer.
As much as a clip-on reading light feels hokey, I think it's a better compromise for when you need to read in the dark.
My 2013 Kobo Aura HD (still in perfect condition!) is a standard item in my bag, and still sees daily use as a bedtime reader. Having Calibre automatically sync reading positions between devices would allow me to leave it at home. Problem solved :)
I've been using mine almost every day for a year now. A week ago I left it at Home Depot (it had all of my sketches and measurements for the thing I was building) and I despaired of finding it again. I was already planning to drop $500 on a second one without a second thought when it turned up at the customer service counter. Tangible feeling of relief when I got it back in my hands.
Do I hope some of the software support improves? Heck yes, but the writing and reading experience is exceptional and the software is good enough.
I still have 7 Moleskins on my desk right now, but I haven't written in them for the past two weeks.
The philosophy of the Supernote is not to replace the notebook, but more to improve it. You can create titles which automatically go to a table of content, you have tags, all packaged in a very nice hardware.
The other very nice thing for me, it works totally "offline" if you want. No need to sync with a cloud or whatever. Connect it with USB to your computer, sync your folders like normal folders, done.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Supernote/comments/nhfexf/is_root_a...
I hope that in the future we will get an SDK to create App which integrate nicely into the device to extend it. As it is for me a single task device, a bit like a cordless phone or my HiFi setup, I do not need it as open as my laptop which has been running Linux for the past 20 years.
For me personally, on the stable kernel and as a first time user of such e-Ink writing device, I am very satisfied. I also mostly use the Lamy EMR pen because of the button to activate the eraser.
My takeaways:
- my colleagues who loved it back then still love it and have been joined by a few more
- personally I'm still happy that I returned mine and got an iPad instead although ideally I had gotten the iPad in addition instead of as a replacement.
- the writing experience was fantastic! It feels like writing on paper and the results are of similar quality. When someone I know who can draw she made a beautiful drawing quickly and was impressed.
- the return process (at that time) was a case study in bad ux. Not dark patterns as far as I could see (once I contacted them they were very helpful and did not try to upsell me or anything, but I actually gave up trying to register the return myself)
- what turned me away in the end was that 1.) I didn't have budget for both the Remarkable and and iPad and 2.) the Remarkable was then too limited on its own (I use my iPad for notetaking, udemy, virtual meetings over Zoom and what not that I don't want to install on my work machine and probably a few more things) 3. at the time there was no Linux sync and it was bot clear for me how good ssh support was going to be (I still don't know but hear good things). 4. Locking was limited to 4 digit pin.
- an unintended benefit of going for the iPad was that I realized iOS was sufficiently different from Mac that I could actually like it, so I now have a cheap iPhone as well.
reMarkable is great looking hardware with subpar software.
I should not need to SSH into a device to install Koreader to get an acceptable ereading esperience.
I rarely use my reMarkable 2 much preferring an old Kobo HD for bedtime reading and the original 13 inch Sony dpt-rp1 for larger A4 texts.
As the article says: "If you are familiar with dedicated ebook readers, you will miss a dictionary, bookmarks and annotations. You can highlight parts of the text, but there is no index of annotations anywhere. This makes it unsuitable for some types of editing and annotated reading."
Surely those are not remarkable features to ask for?
I could imagine that the e-reader experience would be sub-par, which is a shame. (although I have yet to sideload any ebooks onto it).
Are there toolkits/programs written by enthusiasts that could be used on Pinenote?
There was also a slight input delay that I found annoying. I love writing on paper, and so if the experience is significantly inferior I won't be sold. I totally disagree with the author's claim that this thing provides a superior writing experience, unless they've improved on their designs and it now actually does feel like paper.
I would instead highly recommend a much cheaper, though dumber, yet far superior LCD-slate (like one of these: https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-howshow-lcd-writing-t...). The writing is instant, and even the tightest loops and smallest details will show up as if on paper (though green-on-black). When I was in university, I would use this for sketches in discussions, rough calculations and drafts, and saved a ton of paper that I would otherwise just have thrown away.
The fact that it wouldn't let me save stuff or share my drawings didn't bother me at all. Worst case scenario, I'd just take a picture of it.
I have a remarkable 2 which I use daily for 6+ months now. It does get really tiny details right. Since lines are pixelated I can see maybe up to 2px precision.
You have to use a smaller "brush" for this though.
I'm also not seeing any delay.
Few reasons why:
- backlight
- ocr
- better pen and eraser
In my mind I'd like to make it a "programming sketchbook", where every time I save, text get OCRd, compiled and I get some compile information out of it.
Obviously I would be just sending the buffer to an external computer and get the output, or something like that.
But the current reMarkable and its ecosystem made me think what I was looking for was way too experimental.
The only thing that annoys me is not having buttons to turn pages. Swiping over a touchscreen is counterproductive and Remarkable sometimes fails to recognize the gesture.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the device itself, I think it just didn't fit the way that I take notes. The only thing I found as an actual annoyance was that they forced you into using their cloud services which I didn't think were very good. I would have much rather had it OCR my notes into Standard Notes or figured out a way to sync. Syncing to Standard Notes never happened, so I just type long-form notes directly into Standard Notes and keep a Rite in the Rain pad in my pocket and a pen for spur of the moment stuff.
On the surface, remarkable seems pretty great and even feels pretty great. But for all it could be doing, it's almost not doing anything. The note-taking and drawing tools are extremely barebones. There are no line or shape drawing tools of any kind. There's no real way of using it as an infinite canvas kind of thing, because the canvas isn't infinite, and you can't scroll like that. You have to zoom in and out or resize your drawings and move them around.
The hardware is extremely hackable, which is the coolest part, but also makes it even more weird that the remarkable's software is so lackluster, because there are actually tools out there already you can use to make up for some of these.
I ended up not using mine very much because it's just not a very good experience for anything past simple note-taking, and then eventually sold it and bought a whiteboard instead. No regrets.
on edit: clarified.
Sometimes there's Indiegogo hype for "ooh, a large color e-ink tablet!" and I'd encourage cautious pessimism about those listings. Might be a good idea to wait for them to ship, and to wait for some reviews.
Is an excellent device and I am super happy with it.
That is how I would summarize reMarkable from talking to friends and my own personal experience.
Thus, the reMarkable 2 as it stands makes it a no deal due to all of this: [1]
This article says that you have root access on the remarkable, but doing so will void the warranty.
An alternative if you want more functionality is to root your sony, there was some progress on hacking the sony for putting regular android packages on it. I can dig out some links if you can't find it.
Now individual experiences with rM support have varied rather wildly between "they're great!" and "they're the worst!" so feel free to temper your expectations.
How did the pen work in practice for you?
* The Lenovo writing pad device - https://www.lenovo.com/nl/nl/yoga-book/
This thing is different from all other devices on the market. You can write on the device itself, or you can put a piece of paper on top of it and write on that which will simultaneously be digital iirc.
* A smart clipboard, I'm sure there are non-kickstarter variations of this out there somewhere as well
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/clipboard-plus/clipboar...
* moleskine has a smart pen + smart notebook combo that syncs live with your phone
https://www.moleskine.nl/moleskine-smart-writing-ellipse-set...
* Modern pen-only solutions look like this, ie the Neo smartpen m1+
Anoto (https://www.anoto.com) holds the IP on the proprietary pattern of dots used on the paper. Sure, you can make your own pattern, but Anoto's technology allows the pen to not only know where it is at on the paper (allowing it to capture pen strokes), but it also knows which piece of paper it is writing on...out of the gazillion unique sheets of paper the technology allows. So, cool stuff, but all depending on the good graces of one company. I used to work for one of their partners (now out of business), and a large part of our secret sauce was allowing one to print any document, but with the dot pattern printed under your Word doc/map/PDF. IOW, print anything and now you can write on it. Imagine printing your city map from MapGIS/ESRI, mark it up with (for example) fire hydrants, dock the pen. Now your GIS database is updated with fire hydrant locations, and you didn't have to carry a pricey PC or tablet into the field.
You can still buy the technology via LiveScribe, but I don't know how it is used in enterprise scenarios, if at all anymore.
On the upside, the paper notebook doesn't crash randomly when battery is low, and it can store (flat) physical objects.
I understand that botching your perfect brainstorming doodle with permanent pen gives a certain degree of anxiety. But one can treat those as drafts; you'll use up a lot of Moleskine pages before the cost breaks even with this.
Disclaimer : I sold my remarkable because I had a tiny but noticeable "gap" between the stylus and the "ink" and I wasnt able to tolerate it. But I'm missing the edition features.
Edit: it has left handed mode?! Perhaps I've already set that, but it isn't thorough enough? Gonna go check now. Btw, it's under settings, accessibility.
For the price, I find it better than both the reMarkable and a paper notebook.
I've been banging this drum for a while. Yes, please.
I really enjoy my RM2 despite this, though.
Some things I’ve used it for, so far:
- As a notebook. Nothing much to mention here. Being able to pick a page template (plain/dotted/lined/squared) is nice.
- Reading PDFs. Kindle won’t quite cut it, even with k2pdfopt – the screen size makes a difference. Plus, you can annotate them!
- Reading code. `npx repo-to-pdf some-repo` and then proceed as above. Great for getting oneself into a full-focus mode.
- Live-sketching at conference calls. I just share the reMarkable screen to my Mac and then share the companion app’s window on Zoom. Tried it out twice during internal brown-bags, worked very nice.
- As an actual toy. Getting grandma’s picture onto an e-ink screen and being able to draw a moustache lights up a big smile on my 8yo niece’s face.
The remarkable also has very mediocre note management software, on the device, online, and on the desktop.
The pigments remain on an indexable surface, which is collected together with many other such surfaces. Searches, if the correct keyword is known, can take a couple of seconds.
The time between recharges is amazing, and to make a write requires a recharge every month or so. To actually retrieve information, it requires no charge at all!
Unfortunately, once the memory is full, you need to replace the storage device at a cost of about $10. I have to do this once every three months, but you can afford several and keep them aside. It's also really easy to tell when you're approaching your memory limit.
I'd say another drawback is a lack of backlight, but the ReMarkable doesn't have one either.
My biggest want is an open device - I was originally drawn to the reMarkable _because_ it seemed quite open, but this subscription model really makes me rethink things (with what I would consider "core" functionality, e.g syncing, locked behind a paywall).
But it's not an IPad! It's always funny to hear it compared to tablets since the main value proposition (to me) is the e-ink and the distinct lack of tablet-like features. It's a replacement for physical bound books and paper notebooks. That's it. Do your paperbacks and composition notebooks have good OCR, search indexing and a mountable file system? Nope, and neither does the remarkable :-)
History of tech needs to be more widely studied. I think we'd get really great products if people knew their history better.
why is round 2 successful?
An Apple Newton MessagePad 2000 was a sweet device; the ultimate note taking tool that was not equalled by any tablet for more than 20 years. My handwriting style happened to work well for the Newton and as a consequence it was an amazing tool that exceeded my expectations, but I knew several people whose handwriting was not picked up well by the recognition engine and so they struggled with the device. The earlier Newtons were also underpowered and the handwriting engine was over-hyped so they failed to live up to expectations.
Round 2 has much better hardware, improved connectivity and wireless tools, and a larger ecosystem they can try to fit into. I think it remains to be seen if round 2 of these notebook tools will succeed. I think that the eInk devices like the reMarkable are _not_ succeeding in the market but regular tablet devices are making progress in this area and are more likely to end up the winners in any revival of electronic notebook tools.
Certainly taking holiday photos, trading stocks, and hailing a cab aren't the same things, but the smartphone does all those things.
So yeah, Christensen, Moore, Collins, Ries and Trout say "different devices, different market" but recent lived reality says "nope, same device".
So I've got no idea
There are a few features that I didn't know I needed: using a photo as a reference, using the camera to pick colors, browsing notes like they're pages in a notebook, annotating websites, sending drawings with telegram, etc.
I never leave the house without my iPad. I never use it for browsing or watching videos. It doesn't show any notifications. It's strictly a notebook replacement, and It's brilliant.
How can a device like this not have an ability to make annotations?... What's worse, the highlights you make on the book are not indexed. To me, it's insane.
I think one can hack this together with Kobo, I believe. But should you really buy a device for $500+ to hack it together?
Once this device supports proper E-Reader features, it will be a great iPad alternative, IMHO. And I'll be a big purchase candidate.
I also wondered why E-Ink devices are not more popular. I think it has the potential to rival the iPad but at the moment it is just a fraction of the tablet market.
I think one reason that E-Ink is not more popular is probably because of the Price and that it is really best as a secondary device. Most people would rather purchase a primary device that can do a lot of things well rather than a secondary device that can do a few things exceptionally.
The handwriting equivalent of Notepad that came with Windows Tablet edition (2002?), A software called Journal, allowed searching in handwritten notes. It worked pretty well, since searching does not require an exact OCR (it sometimes has some false positives, but it's actually better at finding then the most recent typed version of OneNote).
It may be a silly reason to deduct points, but the fact that this company are name parasitizing on a real word, and especially one in widespread and important use, is already putting them behind for me.
Having said that Supernote's ambitions for more ruggedness/robustness and Pinenote's openness and overall stronger specs would probably have made them higher priority anyway once I get around to ordering.
Like pen size, you can also adjust the eraser size!
I'm very content with my reMarkable 1, and while I absolutely love it, I'm not sure if I would put down €480 for it (I got it from my old boss as he wasn't using it).
This drives me nuts.
If they would add meta tags and make pages searchable by that, it would be 100% perfect.
I mean, why not just use paper?
Personally I would pay more to have e-ink. Looking at it is like looking at paper! It is easier on the eyes, less drain on the battery. And most stuff software development wise, b&w is good enough.
There is a whole array of "notebook like" e-ink devices being created and released, but they mostly exist in, and target, the chinese and japanese market. Not the Western one. Remarkable is one of the exception and Kobo recently released one. Hopefully we will see more of it.
I personally think that the reason for this lack of device targeting the Western market is that the Kindle basically flooded the board and killed most of the use case. Sadly :(
However, they do have some nice devices like this color notebook with a pen and I guess that is what you were looking for: https://onyxboox.com/boox_nova3color
There is a competitor called DES Slurry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdAxyp7cj78
It has more colours, better resolution and better contrast... but it's refresh and update speeds are much slower than E-Ink... which hopefully will improve as time progresses
We need more competition in this space.
I've had my PocketBook Inkpad Color for over six months already.
Once e-ink technology advances enough to allow for these, it might compete with iPad, but until then the lag is severely limiting what the device can do. Reading books (one screen refresh a minute) is fine, but not much else.
I've been using a reMarkable for some weeks on the job, and I'm generally satisfied. However, the reMarkable is not a proud linux computer. When changing to the subscription model, they introduced new Terms of Services. Among others, these prohibit reverse engineering the cloud API. Upon request, a customer service employee who had clearly never heard of the GPL clarified that as a customer I would certainly not be allowed to modify the operating system. Their legal team stepped in later to clarify that they accept the GPL, but still I should not dare to touch their API.
reMarkable gave every customer from before the 12th of October a lifetime subscription that is not transferable, should I eventually sell the tablet. So, I paid a ton of money for a tablet that says "OCR your writing" and "Sync all your documents" on the box, but I can not sell it without losing functionality that is advertised with on the box. The pricing for the subscription is way above reasonable.
As a note to the author, since you mentioned you recommended it to a psychologist: Please don't, or at least strongly suggest to keep away from connecting it to the internet. A random startup's cloud storage is not a place for sensitive medical and personal data. There is no option to sync the reMarkable with a self-operated WebDAV share or similar.
"Without a subscription, you can still use the cloud to store and sync your notes. However, files will stop syncing to the mobile and desktop apps if they haven’t been opened in the last 50 days. They’ll still be automatically stored on your paper tablet"[1]
[1] https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/44082491463...
Learning about this debacle kind of softens that blow, in a weird way. I was really enthused about their openness and it would have hurt even more if I had gotten back into using it only to find out that it's the same shit, different company.
Not sure it could change anything to you but reMarkable is a EU company where the minimum legal warranty is of two years. Which implies :
- that even if they were evil (which I'm sure they aren't), they wouldn't intentionally produce devices that last less than two years.
- that it's not impossible that you could get a two year warranty, but they probably have different terms for US sales. But it's worth checking.
They repeatedly state that the terms and conditions of their services are Hong Kong jurisdiction.
They have no "terms" for sales like refunds, unless you buy Connect. They literally say "local laws and regulations MAY apply" and tell you to "check your local laws" to figure out what return policy applies. What...