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Comment by wraptile | Hacker News Reader

You can turn these all off. Lack of features is not a feature imho - no mather how hard people try to sell this.

Twitter exists because you can't write long posts. Snapchat exists because you can't view past messages. Tinder exists because you can't just talk to anyone unless they are interested in you too. Limitations and missing "features" absolutely can be an asset to a platform.

You're comparing apples to oranges - those are social networks where multiple people have to come to some sort of consensus, having rules over that consensus sure, can be a feature. I don't need anyone to agree with me to turn off notifications.

Devices with notifications are little skinner boxes for our brains. There's perfectly valid reasons for people to want a device where notifications are not even an option, just like there's valid reasons for alcoholics to not want booze in the house. If that's not an issue for you - congratulations, those devices are not designed for you. But please don't deny others them, just because you don't think they should exist - they absolutely should.

Nobody said the Remarkable shouldn't exist. The question was whether the lack of a feature that can be disabled is a feature, which it isn't. You know what else doesn't send notifications and doesn't even need a battery? Paper.

>The question was whether the lack of a feature that can be disabled is a feature, which it isn't.

It is, though, and examples have been provided of VERY successful platforms built upon this negative space.

Consider the lack of a feature as a feature itself; it lowers the amount of cognitive brainpower required to use the system, and that is VERY valuable.

I’m of two minds on this one. Starting without notifications as an option in my devices would help me tremendously in my day to day life. But that’s just me. There are so many different brains out there. How does a company make a product that sells to a sufficiently wide market to make it worthwhile? The only option I see is… options. User-specific customization.

> Starting without notifications as an option in my devices would help me tremendously in my day to day life.

Incredibly good for mental health.

> The only option I see is… options. User-specific customization.

You can SSH into a remarkable tablet and do whatever you want to it.

> How does a company make a product that sells to a sufficiently wide market to make it worthwhile?

It is very expensive. Its only purpose is to be a digital notebook.

I wasn’t referring to this product specifically, but electronics in general.

> You know what else doesn't send notifications and doesn't even need a battery? Paper.

Think of this product as very expensive paper that backs up writing to the internet. Not a sh*ty tablet that can't do a lot of things.

To a platform, sure. Limiting what other people can do can shape how a social platform works.

For a piece of hardware, not so much.

No you're wrong. Its absolutely a selling point. When i got my remarkable i did what i do with any other tech, start searching the menus and features and trying things out. What i immediately discovered... theres nothing to do! Until you start writing, or you have something to read, the device is useless. I got mine for XMas, and a week earlier i bought myself an ipad pro to use as a digital notebook. Unboxing it and using it day one and i was immediately struct by the quiet tech that it is. Its unlike anything else i've used in a long time.

Get an ipad and theres endless apps and accounts and notifications and a shiny bright screen begging for you to play with it. The ipad really wants to be your computer with a stylus attached, and that is great, i take it traveling instead of anything else and its really convenient. The remarkable is NOT a computer. The remarkable sits at my desk and is just ready for me, while the ipad is eternally charging, or chiming, or begging for attention and distraction. I can't have it at my desk while i work.

The remarkable is literally a digital notebook and has about as much utility as a real notebook - a lot for writing and reading and almost 0 for anything else. It is honestly the first product i've used that actually replaces paper at my desk.

I have an old iPad Air that I don’t link to my main Apple ID. It has no apps except for the minimum needed to function as an ebook reader and scratchpad.

It’s pretty distraction free. I would say if you’re willing to run your tablet under its potential it’s possible to have a quiet device.

I ordered a Remarkable 2 but canceled once I realized I had an old iPad lying around. It works for me.

> It works for me.

Thats really what matters.

I will say one big thing for me is the light and flashing and stuff. Humans are naturally evolved to be attracted to quick moving and bright things. Bright electronic screens totally hit that, and for me any sort of screen in my periphery completely distracts me. So a device without a light makes a big difference.

Ive had LCD tablets and have a few Boox devices. The Boox devices are IMO not really a distraction. Web browsing just feels off and beyond grabbing something to read off the net I never really find myself using it. I don't compulsively browse reddit on it. Games and movies obviously are pretty much no goes but I get the added flexibility of being able to read the newspaper or a library book. You don't even need to make an account with the Boox devices. It's there if you want but it's MUCH easier to ignore than a smartphone or traditional tablet.

In my opinion it's a great deal more complex than: "you can just turn off the features". To me "lack-of-a-feature" is not in itself a feature of the device or platform, rather a feature of the company who makes the device or platform. It signals that the manufacturer is fully committed to solving a specific use case. Avoiding feature creep is tough though. Companies need to make money, and the easiest way to do that is to exploit your current customers to upgrade. However, because no one upgrades a device without a reason, it may be inevitable that companies continue to follow the classic: phone -> phablet -> tablet -> basically laptop without a keyboard progression.

>You can turn these all off.

In many cases, you can't. Turning off popups and reminders is a constant battle with my hardware. Duolingo is about to murder me if I don't resume my language practice.

It must be great to live a life in perfect control of your impulses. Alas, as a mere human, being able to turn off all notifications, also means I can turn them back on when I get bored with what I'm doing.

Purposefully putting myself in a situation where any dopamine rush is more than a click away is one of the best feelings I've had in years. So yeah, I'd consider that a feature.

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