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ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

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Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#161

Post by timow1337 »

Eeems wrote: post #25
fny wrote: post #5

If there is a remarkable person that sees this, please embrace the hacker community. It is a huge asset to have us by your side, and it's a huge differentiator from all the other tablets which have walled off developers. Also, it would be pretty sweet some part of the API was documented.

They just recently released their toolchain for the reMarkable 2 https://github.com/reMarkable/linux/issues/7 The toolchain for the rM1 has been out for a long time. Since it's just a linux device, there is a ton of existing documentation on how to work with it.

unfortunately, the sdk doesn't work with hi applications yet. the way the screen works has changed significantly. There are community projects that make it work though: https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable2-framebuffer

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#162

Post by naikrovek »

davisr wrote: post #146
terpimost wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Majority of consumer facing products collect usage analytics, otherwise they don’t know how to improve the product.

> otherwise they don’t know how to improve the product. Or, you know, they could just ask customers how the product is working for them. Automated data collection is a huge, huge problem and stampedes over civil liberties. We ought to control our computers, and not be controlled by them, which is why I vigorously oppose all non-free (proprietary, non libre) software.

I see your point here, and then I count the number of times I have responded to survey requests or participated in nielsen ratings surveys, even when paid to do it.

That number is zero.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#163

Post by cycomanic »

tubularhells wrote: post #144
cycomanic wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised that you say the pen/glass fell is no better than IPad Pro or Surface Pro, in my opinion this is a difference like day and night. I also own the Sony epaper DPT-1 and while that one has a good feel it's not close to the remarkable (mind you it also has a different aim, i.e. only note-taking no drawing). But in my opinion the writing feel blows anything with a regular LCD or OLED display completely out o…

That Sony you mentioned is 1k USD. Is it locked down and unhackable for that price? I like my free software and Linux environments.

It is completely locked down and really can only take notes and read PDFs. However there is a community who managed to unlock it and it's mainly an android system underneath if I recall correctly. For me it's largely a device where I do my reading for work so I haven't really bothered trying to unlock it.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#164

Post by paultopia »

Arainach wrote: post #93
jason_slack wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ReMarkable is sort of astonishingly expensive, I have been contemplating buying a ReMarkable 2 as I prefer to handwrite everything/annotate/. The price tag is a bit hefty given the cost of an iPad and pencil and the zillion other things it does. I'm curious if you are indeed going to buy one?

I've had mine for 4-6 weeks now. I'm not returning it, but I can't particularly recommend it - both the annotation and eReading experiences are significantly inferior to what you'd get with Onenote, Notability, or Drawboard on iPad/Surface. The reMarkable hardware is nice, but its stock software is frankly disappointing. The hackability is a "plus", but I don't want to have to resort to unsupported firmware tweaks to…

I agree with all of this and would add two more:

* PDF annotations are automatically flattened, so you can't browse them separately or easily extract them on a computer

* sync is terribly, agonizingly, slow and unreliable

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#165

Post by davisr »

reginaldo wrote: post #155
davisr wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us hackers feel the same way. I'm the author of a paid-but-GPLv3+ program called RCU[1] that almost 400 people use because they don't want to, or legally can't, interface with a cloud. I never connect my tablet to the net except to get software updates. [1]: http://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/

Thanks for the software and documentation you've written for the reMarkable. I've taken a different approach for running Debian buster , but your guide [1] saved me a lot of time nonetheless. [1] http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/ chroot for now, systemd-nspawn as soon as I have time to hack on it later, as I want to be able to switch between whatever I'm running and reMarkable's original software.

I'm really glad you found it useful! Do you think it saved you $20 worth of time? :)

Parabola-rM is really a labor of love, and half of the proceeds are donated to the FSF and Parabola project. It would mean a tremendous amount to have your financial support for independent free software development (and if you have already bought a copy, thank you!).

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#166

Post by girvo »

nextos wrote: post #31
fny wrote: post #5

If there is a remarkable person that sees this, please embrace the hacker community. It is a huge asset to have us by your side, and it's a huge differentiator from all the other tablets which have walled off developers. Also, it would be pretty sweet some part of the API was documented.

It's quite nice. I own a R1 and it's a good ereader and notepad. It brings back memories about the Nokia N700-N9 series, a class of devices I really miss.

The Nokia N9 is my all time favourite gadget. Best phone I’ve ever owned.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#167

Post by davisr »

naikrovek wrote: post #162
davisr wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> otherwise they don’t know how to improve the product. Or, you know, they could just ask customers how the product is working for them. Automated data collection is a huge, huge problem and stampedes over civil liberties. We ought to control our computers, and not be controlled by them, which is why I vigorously oppose all non-free (proprietary, non libre) software.

I see your point here, and then I count the number of times I have responded to survey requests or participated in nielsen ratings surveys, even when paid to do it. That number is zero.

I agree, most companies conduct feedback in a completely impersonal way. I tell my customers that my software doesn't contain any tracking or telemetry, and that human-to-human feedback (direct email) from users is the only way I can know of problems. I also make it very clear that I am open to all kinds of feedback. This is great because I get bug reports directly, can understand how people are using the program in their workflow, and can contextualize feature requests and build solutions that fit for everyone.

Users like this because they are actually being listened to by the software's author, there is no overhead to fixing problems, and they aren't being shoehorned into a database.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#168

Post by Eeems »

timow1337 wrote: post #161
Eeems wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just recently released their toolchain for the reMarkable 2 https://github.com/reMarkable/linux/issues/7 The toolchain for the rM1 has been out for a long time. Since it's just a linux device, there is a ton of existing documentation on how to work with it.

unfortunately, the sdk doesn't work with hi applications yet. the way the screen works has changed significantly. There are community projects that make it work though: https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable2-framebuffer

Yup, been throwing this link throughout the thread as well.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#169

Post by 1996 »

dheera wrote: post #68
calebkaiser wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This an interesting option I never considered. Somehow, I wasn't aware of the C930 book. It looks like it's been discontinued, but there are still many being sold. I've also toyed with the idea of purchasing an old Surface Pro 3 because of the price and the ability to run a full Linux distro—though obviously, I lose all the benefits of e-ink with this option.

I just looked at it. I feel like I would have much preferred they put the e-Ink on the back side of the LCD screen instead of replacing the keyboard. It's really hard to use a non-tactile keyboard for any productivity.

Yes, the same product with an eink screen on the back would be nice... but different. Personally, I like taking notes while reading a website, and this requires a dual screen. Lenovo has other laptops with eink on the bank, but I'm not familiar with the lineup.

For the keyboard, consider getting a USB or bluetooth keyboard, like Lenovo ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II, or ThinkPad Compact USB Keyboard with TrackPoint (0B47190) - they are very comfortable.

As for linux support, check out https://github.com/aleksb/yogabook-c930-linux-eink-driver

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#170

Post by funkaster »

davisr wrote: post #167
naikrovek wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your point here, and then I count the number of times I have responded to survey requests or participated in nielsen ratings surveys, even when paid to do it. That number is zero.

I agree, most companies conduct feedback in a completely impersonal way. I tell my customers that my software doesn't contain any tracking or telemetry, and that human-to-human feedback (direct email) from users is the only way I can know of problems. I also make it very clear that I am open to all kinds of feedback. This is great because I get bug reports directly, can understand how people are using the program in…

Of course direct feedback is good. But it's not scalable and you risk of running a very real case of bias towards whoever you're asking. Running telemetry on your software is not "evil" or "stampedes over civil liberties". You can most certainly run telemetry in a way that protects people's privacy and gives you insightful data on how your users operate and interact with your software. I know this, I've worked on an analytics service serving hundreds of millions of users. I'm building right now a feature-flagging/configuration/core metrics service that does exactly that: preserve user privacy and allow developers to learn about their users (not easy and there are some trade offs, like accuracy).
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