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The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

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Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#111

For the price it has, you could as well buy an iPad Pro, which will do literally anything the ReMarkable will do, but better.

Other than, y'know, lasting weeks on one charge. Or actively disconnecting from the internet, which was the stated goal of the project.

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#112
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought one almost two years ago and sold it about a year later. I wanted to use it for doing math but the inability to see more than one page at a time while I was working made it painful. Ability to copy across pages would have also solved the problem, but that still doesn't appear to be possible. There is simply no way to keep developing an expression, line by line, beyond the bottom of the page.

yeah, infinite scroll is much asked-for

The old (ran on XP) SMART Board software just had a "hyperlink" that said "expand page" that just added a bit onto the end of the page.

Seems like a rather easy (I think) way of doing it.

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#113
I have a reMarkable and I'm really happy with it. I can't recommend it for everyone yet but if you like to tinker it's really really nice.

I wrote a small script that downloads the articles from news websites and puts them on the device using 'wkhtmltopdf -a5' and it has become my morning newspaper.

The software isn't perfect but it works well enough (and getting better all the time) and the fact that you can write your own makes it perfect for me.

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#114
> While the tablet keeps up with writing just fine, it's a little slow when jumping around a long document.

I haven't found a good tablet analog for a sense of "place" within a document and fast indexing. With a book, I can flip through the pages by bending the pages and sliding my thumb over the edges (like a deck of cards). On a laptop, ctrl+F is approximately the same speed as thumbing through physical pages (sometimes better, sometimes worse, depending on how unique the search term is). My iPad is intentionally set up for handwriting, [1] but I still find searching through documents on a tablet pretty tedious.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20271316

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same experience, unfortunately - although I recognized early and returned it a few weeks after getting it. At the time the software was bad across the board: on device and off. But the clincher for me was the price of the device was as much as you'd spend on an iPad and it had no backlight. I'd go back to considering ReMarkable on next generation if they've learned from gen 1. My use case was 50% book readi…

To each their own, I've found with my ereader that backlight (or are they frontlights?) are pointless. During the day, I always use no backlight and I find it easier on the eyes just to turn a lamp on at night.

Turning on a lamp at night is great when your SO goes to bed later, or doesn't mind light when going to sleep.

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#116
post #16

I am actually wondering to see I buy one. Here is some links that I find interesting to consider before buying (some of those do answer some previous comments) : * Here is a [previous occurrence on HN]( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16321531 ). * Here is a ["curated list of (code) projects related to the reMarkable tablet"]( https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable ). * Here is a [framework]( https://g…

YMMV, but I was an early adopter and have never regretted it. It's one of my favorite devices. There are some valid criticisms -- it's slow to navigate documents, so if you're used to flipping through a book, it'll be mildly infuriating.

It's indispensable for me because it can carry so much of my written life around in one little package. In one day, I might have a couple of work meetings (free-form scrawl a few notes, maybe diagram something), try to work out some coding problem, then go to a SAR training in the evening and as long as I've got the tablet with me I've also got all my notes and procedures for that too.

To replace the ReMarkable with good old paper, I'd have to put another hundred-plus books back on my shelf, carry another half-dozen or so textbooks in my car, and at least three thick binders and assorted other notepads and nonsense.

I recently went to Glacier National Park for a few days, and before leaving I compiled a bunch of possible destinations, visitor info, maps and so on into a PDF and loaded that into my ReMarkable. Instant customized visitor guide.

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#117
post #86
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love mine, even though I can't use it at work due to having a very secretive employer. It's essentially an electronic notebook with zero distractions, which IMO is the whole point. The iPad pro has a browser, Facebook, Twitter, email, messenger, hacker news, Instagram, and a million other ways to get distracted. Even if I don't use them, you still get the temptation to use those, and it's pretty distracting. When I…

When I need to use mine with confidential work documents, I just put it into airplane mode and upload documents to it over USB. I confirmed (a few software versions back) that deleting while in offline mode resulted in a full delete, and that nothing was synced after coming back online. I’d really really like a means to maintain a direct-sync-only folder, or some sort of robust encryption story, but to date, the team…

> deleting while in offline mode resulted in a full delete

Overwritten with random data and unlinked, or just unlinked? I would assume the latter...?

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds absolutely horrible. The whole point of a book is it's finality. I don't want to have to pull a book as a site down every time I want to read a book. It sounds like this model is focused on some sort of DRM approach that has little to no usefulness for people who want to read a book.

Do you mean you don’t want to scroll to consume content or do you mean that you don’t like to download content on demand? Or both? And, no I don’t like "rights management" of the user, so fuck DRM fwiw. Have you seen Bubblin ( https://bubblin.io ) on the iPad? (Disc. I am one of the developers behind it.) Sadly, books are already DRM'ed either by being on dead-tree or by being behind proprietary tech like that of Kin…

I don't like the idea all around. I looked at the site you referenced and it brings me no advantage over how I read books today. I honestly don't think an HTML variant of books are what people are after. What I want, as a consumer, is an identical workflow to how I buy paper books and I want as close to a paper reading experience when I choose to buy an electronic book. It looks like you've positioned yourself to be a walled garden publishing platform. I want to be able to download my books. The formats that exist today do a good enough job to read on devices. My Sony eReader from 2011 works still. I got a great ROI out of that device as I've read hundreds of books on it. I don't want books as a service.

And no, not all outlets are DRM'ed. I'll say it again: how you're doing books brings no advantages and, some additional disadvantages. No thanks.

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#119
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I need to use mine with confidential work documents, I just put it into airplane mode and upload documents to it over USB. I confirmed (a few software versions back) that deleting while in offline mode resulted in a full delete, and that nothing was synced after coming back online. I’d really really like a means to maintain a direct-sync-only folder, or some sort of robust encryption story, but to date, the team…

If they had done this I would have already bought one. I won't until they do. I regard my reading and note taking as private and I don't want them processed off device.

You can simply not connect it to a Wi-Fi network. It supports transferring files over USB according to the documentation [0], though I haven't really tried that.

Their FAQ also mentions that you can use the device without their cloud service [1]. I believe the handwriting recognition (which isn't really that useful IMO) requires to be online.

[0] https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/11500570038... [1] https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/11500373686...

Re: The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review

#120
post #86
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love mine, even though I can't use it at work due to having a very secretive employer. It's essentially an electronic notebook with zero distractions, which IMO is the whole point. The iPad pro has a browser, Facebook, Twitter, email, messenger, hacker news, Instagram, and a million other ways to get distracted. Even if I don't use them, you still get the temptation to use those, and it's pretty distracting. When I…

When I need to use mine with confidential work documents, I just put it into airplane mode and upload documents to it over USB. I confirmed (a few software versions back) that deleting while in offline mode resulted in a full delete, and that nothing was synced after coming back online. I’d really really like a means to maintain a direct-sync-only folder, or some sort of robust encryption story, but to date, the team…

> I’d really really like a means to maintain a direct-sync-only folder, or some sort of robust encryption story, but to date, the team has said that corporate compliance use cases aren’t a priority for them. I see that some of the team is participating here; perhaps we can all convince them to prioritize some sort of solution?

That would be really awesome. The development team is pretty small, and I'm pretty sure it's low on their list of priorities, but if they had encryption at rest and LDAP/Okta authentication, I'd definitely get another one for work.

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