Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buy a book light?
Still too bright
I made a dimmer for mine and works great. I Just put a few layers of tissue paper over it but really anything you find around the house.
The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
91–100 of 530 posts
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#92I always think of the remarkable as a really odd device. Hardware wise, it looks great, but I seldom hear good things about the software, only that it is "improving" for years now. Also, while I think the form factor would be great for a text and graphics based computing device, they seem to invest as much energy as possible in playing down the computing angle, so that instead of having something great to do technica…
>I seldom hear good things about the software, only that it is "improving" for years now.
I think that depends on what you want out of the device. It's definitely limited - but, as other posters note, that's an explicit design choice. A design goal in fact. But what it does, it does pretty well. I've had my RM2 for maybe a year now. And I use it daily. It's become my preferred note-taking & sketching medium, replacing the paper notepads I've used for years.
I don't use it for anything else: but it supports those two use cases very nicely. It's simple but subtle things that I've found useful, for example:
1. Keeping my notes in folders. 2. Being able to add notes to a subject (folder), rather than interleaving in a paper book 3. Being able to move things about when sketching. I'd often get to the edge of the paper in a notebook and need to cram something awkwardly. Now, I can just select and move.
I've tried using a wacom tablet connected to the PC instead, and much prefer the remarkable. The ergonomics just feel so much better.
It's not perfect: live sync can be a bit unreliable, and I'd prefer the "todo" template to be a bit more app-like (move items off the list when complete).
But I can live with those. I like the fact it's focused, efficient, pleasant to use, and doesn't try to be all things to all people.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#93I bought a Remarkable 2 myself, and I have to say I'm really happy with it. The built in e-reader was a bit mediocre, but a quick SSH session and a couple community scripts later and with just a long swipe across the screen I could access Koreader whenever I wanted.
I don’t understand how they put so little effort into software compared to hardware. They raised money recently they should be able to hire a decent software team, but I’m afraid they’ll start pushing towards subscription only features now
I only have the reMarkable 1, but I've actually been pretty happy with the software on the device on the constant upgrades. What has been really disappointing is the clunky desktop and mobile apps and the fact that there's no Web app. Personally I wish they would just abandon the desktop and mobile apps and build a great Web app that works OK everywhere.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#94I always think of the remarkable as a really odd device. Hardware wise, it looks great, but I seldom hear good things about the software, only that it is "improving" for years now. Also, while I think the form factor would be great for a text and graphics based computing device, they seem to invest as much energy as possible in playing down the computing angle, so that instead of having something great to do technica…
What I can say is it just works. If you keep a notebook, it is a viable alternative with few drawbacks and many advantages in my experience.
They have been very careful and deliberate with their features. At first it was odd or even frustrating that the capabilities are limited, but over time I have started to understand their approach and wanting to align with their goal of being a focused and distraction free experience.
It seems like they have little real competition in this niche they have carved out, so can take the time to slowly but continuously role out enhancements. It reminds me of how the iPhone has been limited in overall capabilities compared to Android but stays more streamlined as enhancements are made.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#95I always think of the remarkable as a really odd device. Hardware wise, it looks great, but I seldom hear good things about the software, only that it is "improving" for years now. Also, while I think the form factor would be great for a text and graphics based computing device, they seem to invest as much energy as possible in playing down the computing angle, so that instead of having something great to do technica…
E-Mail and Python notebooks? I don't think they these are the primary use cases for a "digital paper" device. What you consider an "overengineered piece" of paper might be intentional. Maybe you don't need paper - some people do.
But should a more modern, digital paper, not enhance the human intellect? Why should I not be able to jot down a math formula that the computer then solves for me? Why cant I draw a triangle and let it compute the sides? Why not write a letter to a friend and send it directly to them and also read their answer on the same device?
This would be enhancing paper for me. Combining the at this point pretty natural way of writing on paper with many of the modern computers amenities. Sure, you might not need all these, but paper is also cents if you really need "Not features". Minimalism and focus on core features is fine, but artificially limitations in this way does not seem to help remarkable to deliver good software. So what does it achieve?
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#96I always think of the remarkable as a really odd device. Hardware wise, it looks great, but I seldom hear good things about the software, only that it is "improving" for years now. Also, while I think the form factor would be great for a text and graphics based computing device, they seem to invest as much energy as possible in playing down the computing angle, so that instead of having something great to do technica…
Yeah so you want the Boox with Play Store installed. Then you have all that stuff.
Well, in theory. One could write an app for that I guess. But the whole complex android stack does not really appeal to me. Simplicity I think, would also be really important. And I think openness goes hand in hand with that.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#97I'm really glad I bought my ReMarkable2 (and Marker "Plus"), as it suits my use case extremely well: replacing stacks of 8.5x11" graph notepads, while adding digitization / sync, undo/redo, select/cut/paste/resize/move, (modest) pan/zoom, etc. Battery life and form factor are great. The writing UX is really something: low-latency, ~perfect hand detection, and the "feel" of writing. Yeah, the software's mediocre, but…
I bought Remarkable 2 and returned it sadly. It does one thing very well which is writing. But not a great tool for reading PDFs. When I figured pinch to zoom was not possible that was it for me. It’s a really polished tool for wiring but they have a lot of room to improve for reading experience.
Pinch zoom is available in PDFs now. I'm on 2.7, but I believe it was added in 2.6. It works really well. Of course it's far slower than on a normal tablet due to the e-ink screen, but it's definitely fine for me.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#98I'm really glad I bought my ReMarkable2 (and Marker "Plus"), as it suits my use case extremely well: replacing stacks of 8.5x11" graph notepads, while adding digitization / sync, undo/redo, select/cut/paste/resize/move, (modest) pan/zoom, etc. Battery life and form factor are great. The writing UX is really something: low-latency, ~perfect hand detection, and the "feel" of writing. Yeah, the software's mediocre, but…
I bought Remarkable 2 and returned it sadly. It does one thing very well which is writing. But not a great tool for reading PDFs. When I figured pinch to zoom was not possible that was it for me. It’s a really polished tool for wiring but they have a lot of room to improve for reading experience.
That's disappointing to hear. I've been on the fence about way to pick one of these up but I had heard that the reading experience was sub par. I have yet to find an e-ink tablet that's attractive enough to spend money on.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#99the ghosting of e-paper displays is somewhat reminiscent of paper magazines, when you see the ink from the other side of the page.
Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air
#100> Later this month I'll take a look at Supernote which already has a enthusiastic community and promises to have a rich API for 3rd parties to explore and expand. I tried the Remarkable 2 for a month but ended up returning it and ordering the Supernote A5X instead – I couldn't be happier! Its main advantages (IMO): - The Supernote acts as a regular USB mass storage device, so syncing files (w/o resorting to the cloud…
Thanks for sharing. I got the reMarkable 1 pretty early and I've been debating ordering the reMarkable 2. I've heard almost exclusively good things about it, but right now I'm happy enough with the original device. I hadn't heard of Supernote until seeing this comment, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on when I think about upgrading.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say the RM2 has "pretty much none" when it comes to PDF reading and annotation capabilities. That's pretty much exclusively what I use my RM1 device for and it works great.
EDIT: Wow. Looked at the A5X and for the price compared to the RM2, it's very enticing. (Once you throw in the folio and the pen for the RM2, the A5X is comparable if not cheaper.) Since my old Kindle Keyboard died a while back, I haven't replaced it. Looks like the A5X can also read Kindle books which is a huge draw for me. Do you know if there's any API that allows me to write my own utilities to sync with the A5X? Specifically, I want to be able to send PDFs to the device programmatically that will be eventually synced the next time I use it.