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The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

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Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#41

Post by ACS_Solver »

diggan wrote: post #37
ACS_Solver wrote: post #28

I'm a fairly early adopter of the RM, and bought it for keeping handwritten notes. I don't produce a great amount of notes as a student might, but I find that the experience of writing really helps me think. Some thoughts on the device: * The writing experience is top notch. It feels like pen and paper. I recently had the chance to try Onyx Boox Max 2 (very briefly), and it's nowhere close to the RM as far as the tac…

> * It's an open-source Linux-based device but not entirely. The actual UI application isn't open source. But as others have said here, it has pretty good hacking potential, and it's definitely more open than most commercial devices. The company's support of open-source was another reason for me to buy it. Can you tell us a bit more about this? Took a look at their website and searched around a bit, but don't find an…

For one, unlike most Android devices, you don't have to root the RM. It comes with SSH running and you have the root password. The company's Github [1] has most of the source code, from their Linux kernel to the software update daemon.

Their CTO, Martin Sandsmark, is a long-time KDE developer.

Unfortunately, xochitl (the device's main UI) isn't open. It's a major miss in their open approach, and frankly I don't get why they would keep it closed - the RM's competitive advantage is in the hardware design, the xochitl software is merely okay and could only benefit from user patches.

[1] https://github.com/reMarkable

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#43

Post by knolax »

As someone who use pens with 0.38mm tips, most touch screens and graphics tablets I've come across simply don't have enough resolution to write comfortably. Reading this review made me go down a rabbit hole of various E-Ink tablets but it's becoming increasingly frustrating to find that literally none of them list the LPI of the touch screen. I can't even find any measurements on how big the nibs on the styluses are. Can anyone else who uses fine-tipped pens comment on the writing experience for this tablet?

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#44

Post by knolax »

ACS_Solver wrote: post #41
diggan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * It's an open-source Linux-based device but not entirely. The actual UI application isn't open source. But as others have said here, it has pretty good hacking potential, and it's definitely more open than most commercial devices. The company's support of open-source was another reason for me to buy it. Can you tell us a bit more about this? Took a look at their website and searched around a bit, but don't find an…

For one, unlike most Android devices, you don't have to root the RM. It comes with SSH running and you have the root password. The company's Github [1] has most of the source code, from their Linux kernel to the software update daemon. Their CTO, Martin Sandsmark, is a long-time KDE developer. Unfortunately, xochitl (the device's main UI) isn't open. It's a major miss in their open approach, and frankly I don't get w…

> It comes with SSH running and you have the root password

Is the password different for every device? Is the ssh daemon updated regularly? Seems like a massive security vulnerability otherwise.

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#45

Post by lottin »

Like the review says this device is most useful for reading PDFs. Tablets aren't an option because 1) too heavy and 2) not enough battery life, whereas most e-book readers do a poor job displaying PDFs because they're too small. There's only a handful of large screen e-ink devices and this tablet is one of them.

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#48

Post by zachruss92 »

I bought one for myself for Christmas a few years ago. I disliked it so much I ended up returning it. My use case was to use it for notes (bullet journal) and as an eReader. It was ok for taking notes, but for the money it needed to be amazing. I personally wouldn't recommend it. Also their customer support was terrible.

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#49

Post by diggan »

ACS_Solver wrote: post #41
diggan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * It's an open-source Linux-based device but not entirely. The actual UI application isn't open source. But as others have said here, it has pretty good hacking potential, and it's definitely more open than most commercial devices. The company's support of open-source was another reason for me to buy it. Can you tell us a bit more about this? Took a look at their website and searched around a bit, but don't find an…

For one, unlike most Android devices, you don't have to root the RM. It comes with SSH running and you have the root password. The company's Github [1] has most of the source code, from their Linux kernel to the software update daemon. Their CTO, Martin Sandsmark, is a long-time KDE developer. Unfortunately, xochitl (the device's main UI) isn't open. It's a major miss in their open approach, and frankly I don't get w…

Thanks a lot, makes the device a lot more interesting (and hopefully long-lived), somehow those things never came up when I searched.

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#50

Post by ACS_Solver »

knolax wrote: post #44
ACS_Solver wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For one, unlike most Android devices, you don't have to root the RM. It comes with SSH running and you have the root password. The company's Github [1] has most of the source code, from their Linux kernel to the software update daemon. Their CTO, Martin Sandsmark, is a long-time KDE developer. Unfortunately, xochitl (the device's main UI) isn't open. It's a major miss in their open approach, and frankly I don't get w…

> It comes with SSH running and you have the root password Is the password different for every device? Is the ssh daemon updated regularly? Seems like a massive security vulnerability otherwise.

The password is randomly generated for each device, yes. And of course the network only becomes available once you connect the device to your WiFi, or via cable to a PC. Once you're connected, you can also change to key-only authentication if you want.

The SSH daemon is Dropbear, and it doesn't seem to be updated though:

> reMarkable: ~/ dropbear -V

> Dropbear v2016.72

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