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The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

gizmodo.com

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Re: The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

#171

Post by dmix »

This sounds like the perfect GTD/TODO list device!

> but what isn’t great is annotating an epub file and then changing its display font or font size. The text will automatically adjust its flow and move around to fit the screen, but your annotations won’t, leaving them misplaced and out of context.

No way, that's such a big oversight.

That said, I'm totally buying one of these when they do the next major version bump and hopefully address the above issue and ideally double CPU speeds, as the lag mentioned when writing non-cursive is equally an unacceptable UX IMO.

I also absolutely love my Kindle's and have for years. I don't know how the author can have a preference for reading books on a bright iPad. It must not be something he does daily as I do.

The other great benefit of the reMarkable is the support for ePub documents. This is the biggest annoyance with using the Kindle, I've had to convert hundreds of ePub->Kindle using Calibre over the years.

Re: The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

#172

Post by mattmanser »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #159
mattmanser wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see that disappearing quickly as it did between 1st and 2nd gen kindle. On my paperwhite it's now completely un-noticeable most of the time, there's only a few operations that have some lag. I'm tempted to buy one, but know how frustrated I get with bad UIs, so might hold off until the next gen.

FWIW I'm a fellow UI-grouch, but haven't hated anything about it enough to outweigh everything else I love about it. The funky screen redraw is just a brief thing and doesn't really get in my way. The only UI thing that makes me scowl so far is that sometimes my pen settings inexplicably get reset.

I am very tempted then, presently I have 5 different notebooks for different things and doing a couple of courses which I've started to study like I did at university and take written notes instead of just passively consuming.

The general consensus is that you learn better if you write but it's frustrating to not have the notes digitized and backed up.

It sounds like it might be good.

Re: The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

#174

Post by lima »

_pmf_ wrote: post #124
lima wrote: post #98

Some cool facts about the device from a hacker point of view: - Main developer/CTO is a KDE dev and very open source-friendly. - You get root access to the device out of the box. - The device is running a mainline kernel with minimal patches, which have a good chance at being upstreamed[1]. - The toolchain is open[2]. They use vanilla QT/QML and people have already built simple example apps. - There's an unofficial L…

Thanks for the links! What do you use it for; to write or to draw?

Lots of writing and some drawing. Writing is excellent, drawing works ok but it needs a few more brushes.

For drawing, see: https://blog.remarkable.com/status-update-from-the-remarkabl...

Re: The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

#175

Post by lima »

cptskippy wrote: post #139
lima wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They tried, but exposing a "simple USB mass storage" isn't easy at all from a running operating system. USB mass storage requires exposing a block device with a filesystem, which is error-prone and complex. This is why file-based protocols like MTP exist. But, since you can SSH into the device, rsync works just fine on the Remarkable. :)

So because it's not easy, it shouldn't be done? Personally I would be ok with my device disabling it's UI while it emulated a mass storage device when plugged into a host.

It's not only difficult, it's an inferior solution compared to a file-based protocol, so I'm glad they didn't go that route.

However, here's what Martin (the CTO) has been playing with:

https://github.com/reMarkable/vfatbuse

Re: The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

#176

Post by lima »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #144
reacweb wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO, these are important features. It seems it does not have Bluetooth (for a keyboard and/or headset to listen to mp3 while reading) and the battery can not be easily replaced.

https://github.com/fulldecent/system-bus-radio

Should be easy to get that running on the Remarkable...

Re: The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

#177

Post by lima »

masukomi wrote: post #148
splitbrain wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The API used for the cloud service is quite simple. There are already two projects on github implementing it (one by me) - search for remarkable-tablet to find them. The tablet also works fine without using the cloud service, it has a built-in webserver to upload documents to it that you can just access via WiFi or USB-LAN. Really this device is a hacker's dream in terms of openness. The only last thing I'd wish for…

is there any way to tell it to use your cloud service instead of theirs ? In other words, what good is a custom reimplementation of it if you can't make it point at them without dns hacking?

Yes, you can SSH into the device and change a config file. This is a hacker's dream indeed.

Re: The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

#178

Post by blub »

ReverseCold wrote: post #137
blub wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most customers are ignorant of security issues and the privacy regulations are too weak. This has resulted on one hand in only noticing the conveniences of cloud sync on the customer side and an information greediness on the side of the companies. My enthusiasm for this device instantly evaporated when I found out about the mandatory cloud integration. I already know from a customer support situation that Amazon has…

> My enthusiasm for this device instantly evaporated when I found out about the mandatory cloud integration. From GP: "So if you don't like their cloud offering, you can turn of wifi and be sure your data is local"

The GP and lima have both claimed that one can transfer files without the cloud, but this is not mentioned in their FAQ (https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us). This is a direct quote: "Use the reMarkable desktop app or the reMarkable mobile app to transfer documents and ebooks onto your device. Once imported, your files will be synced across your connected devices. reMarkable works best with our custom built apps for iPhone, Android, PC and Mac."

By using a search engine on their web-site(!) one can find details about USB support: "NB: This functionality is currently experimental, as we haven't fully implemented it yet. We will work to improve how this works and looks in future software updates."

Maybe this is a great device which allows open access, but it's very difficult to figure this out from their website.

Re: The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

#179

Post by Liblor »

I own a reMarkable Tablet, unfortunately its software has many teething troubles. For instance, the regular* eraser doesn't erase everything. I.e. on the tablet, it appears as it erases everything, but as soon as you export the page some fragments reappear. Also the percentage battery indicator is unreliable. Or was, they simply removed the indicator in an update. Now, you only have a approximated indicator, which is annoying (I hope the origin of the problem is not hardware related).

If they keep on working on the software, it'll be an awesome device. I love that one has root access via SSH and the writing and reading experience is splendid. However, I have to add this is my first "e-reader", so for me missing features like a dictionary is no biggie. Someone who has owned a kindle might find the reading mode rather limited and thus unsatisfactory.

* The one that emulates a pencil eraser

Re: The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet

#180

Post by djrogers »

jaclaz wrote: post #68

As a side-side note, and just for the record, in 1993 existed (I had one) the Compaq Concerto, using the Windows for Pen Computing (a spin-off of Windows 3.1): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto My model was a 486Sx 33 Mhz with a whopping 8 MB Ram (default was 4 MB) I could have written more or less the same review at the time, nice (doing what at the time was more like "magic" or "science fiction" than an…

> At least it needed not a stupid proprietary cloud,

As has been pointed out many times here, this does not require a 'stupid proprietary cloud' either.

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