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I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

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Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#231

Post by laserbeam »

zahllos wrote: post #205
laserbeam wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It just renders the epub to pdf and then throw the pdf into the note-taking app. I found it weird at first... But then you realise you're supposed to be able to write on the pages any time. The moment you support general epub rendering your pages are no longer fixed and your notes should move around as well. The moment you change your font size, all your notes, drawings and highlights no longer match the underlying…

The remarkable 2 still doesn't support pdf bookmarks? Seriously? I use a Fujitsu Quaderno (was from Sony). Similar idea, no epub support but pdf links and bookmarks, on device search? These all work.

Not yet. But honestly, the latest few updates have been great! Navigation between docs is much much better, pinch to zoom was a great addition, and screenshare is now better than on any eink tablet.

In general, I haven't felt like I'd reaaaaally need bookmarks since software version 2.8 (but that's a matter of taste).

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#232

Post by laserbeam »

aeturnum wrote: post #168
thaumasiotes wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, but both problems are "realigning your notes". It is possible to render an element to the side of the main text in a flowing epub; I did this when I wanted to include line numbers in a text. You could use that idea to keep visible notes near their original location while reflowing the epub. But it wouldn't work at all with notes that appear over the main text. It's also possible to just print the notes within the…

I think OP could have used a more specific description for the sake of clarity. The idea is that using a reMarkable is just like using a pad of paper, so you can make arbitrary handwritten notes on the text. It's hard to imagine how arbitrary notes like that would be displayed on different epub renderings, so I think it's understandable why they use their approach. I also think it's a different problem than kindles h…

That is exactly what I meant. The simplest UX you can have for arbitrary notes of any kind, scribbles, drawings, highlights, is to not encourage page reflow. You can come up with a bunch of other funky weird technical solutions, but once the user hits them there's a strong chance of confusion.

For tablets which encourage writing on your document, the rm2 approach of "just render epub as you would a pdf" feels by far like the best strategy.

The original epub is still stored within their document format btw. You could technically still do things with that file if you wanted.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#233

Post by laserbeam »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #172
aeturnum wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think OP could have used a more specific description for the sake of clarity. The idea is that using a reMarkable is just like using a pad of paper, so you can make arbitrary handwritten notes on the text. It's hard to imagine how arbitrary notes like that would be displayed on different epub renderings, so I think it's understandable why they use their approach. I also think it's a different problem than kindles h…

Marginalia does not generally appear over the text on which it comments, because that would make both the text and the marginalia difficult to read. (Just look at the word - it's text that appears in the margins.) So for practically all purposes, treating each note as an image which should be rendered to the side of a particular part of the dynamically-flowed text will solve the problem. This isn't that hard to do. I…

Honestly, for marginalia I would love it if you could just insert blank notes pages within pdfs and write on them! Also that you could read the pdf with those notes pages enabled/disabled, and easily copy/move them to a separate document later.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#234

Post by laserbeam »

zahllos wrote: post #205
laserbeam wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It just renders the epub to pdf and then throw the pdf into the note-taking app. I found it weird at first... But then you realise you're supposed to be able to write on the pages any time. The moment you support general epub rendering your pages are no longer fixed and your notes should move around as well. The moment you change your font size, all your notes, drawings and highlights no longer match the underlying…

The remarkable 2 still doesn't support pdf bookmarks? Seriously? I use a Fujitsu Quaderno (was from Sony). Similar idea, no epub support but pdf links and bookmarks, on device search? These all work.

Pdf links and pdf table of contents work.

User generated bookmarks in PDFs are not supported yet.

Search is rudimentary/useless and only goes through document titles.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#235

Post by fouc »

ryanianian wrote: post #21
davidandgoliath wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too! I thought it'd be a paperweight, but I immensely enjoy it. It's esp. nice if you throw a custom calendar on it (via reCalendar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys2fNQu0v0o&feature=youtu.be )

Killer app that I didn't know I needed: its built-in screen-share feature lets you easily and reliably share the tablet's screen with a desktop app over wifi. This has been super useful for whiteboarding/diagramming over Zoom. (Older versions of the software had a very buggy implementation that has since been fixed.)

You can screenshare the rm2's screen while diagramming on it? Interesting! Any useful links for that?

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#236

Post by fouc »

selykg wrote: post #42

So, I guess I'll give my (sadly) negative experience with these things. First, I sort of ordered it on a whim. I liked the idea and thought it'd be cool to use for work while not having to use my personal iPad even more. This is their decision, but they ship with DHL, which is absolutely godawful in literally every experience I've had with them. I learned after ordering that the device doesn't allow searching within…

> the device doesn't allow searching within your handwritten notes, a feature I use regularly in GoodNotes on my iPad.

I wonder if people are downvoting because they missed the reason why you wanted to return it. Anyways it seems like useful info to know how hard it is to return it. You could always try to sell it on craiglist or ebay.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#237

Post by fouc »

codezero wrote: post #111
nahtnam wrote: post #59

Is this really worth $400 + $50-$100 for a pen? Why not just get an iPad instead?

Many people would be fine with that solution, it's definitely more robust in a lot of ways. A few reasons I like my remarkable (I have an original and a 2, and got my wife one): 1. forced isolation - no notifications come into this device when I'm using it out of the box. It's a nice intentionally crippled feature for focus. 2. The feel. It's like writing on paper, or very near to it. The texture of the tablet and th…

Dropping touch buttons does sound like a major regression to me.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#238

Post by fouc »

Loughla wrote: post #40
spockz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How well does text conversion work for you? Including the search function? It works poorly for my colleagues. Does it have the option to straighten lines? Say that I draw a box, will it make it square or a circle round? Are annotations to pdf searchable as well?

So it works better than any other item with written to printed text conversion that I've found. My handwriting is especially bad, and I would say it has an 80-90% correct rate, compared to my last system that I tried (neonotes smartpen) that is light years ahead. That was less than 10% correct. I have never used the search function. I do not convert to text unless I have a specific use. This is why I wish we could ta…

I don't have a rm2 but I already love the idea of being able to tag pages (hopefully even multiple tags), and perhaps even to a lesser extent, tag sections of pages. And then search by multiple tags to drill down into specific pages/sections.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#239

Post by selykg »

fouc wrote: post #236
selykg wrote: post #42

So, I guess I'll give my (sadly) negative experience with these things. First, I sort of ordered it on a whim. I liked the idea and thought it'd be cool to use for work while not having to use my personal iPad even more. This is their decision, but they ship with DHL, which is absolutely godawful in literally every experience I've had with them. I learned after ordering that the device doesn't allow searching within…

> the device doesn't allow searching within your handwritten notes, a feature I use regularly in GoodNotes on my iPad. I wonder if people are downvoting because they missed the reason why you wanted to return it. Anyways it seems like useful info to know how hard it is to return it. You could always try to sell it on craiglist or ebay.

I don't mind the downvotes, I assumed I'd get them because I was saying something unpopular in a thread of people who seem to be super excited about it.

It was really more a PSA and I'm happy to take the karma hit if it helps some people at the end of the day.

Sadly, the device is in the hands of DHL at this point, and hasn't moved from one of their locations in over 10 days now. Giving it until Friday before I reach out to Remarkable again and ask for them to make this right with a full refund. I doubt they'll give it, they seem like a bunch of people that are fine with someone saying bad things about them in threads like this, potentially costing them tons of money, just to not lose out on one single return. Refunding me would get me to just go away as I never want to hear from them or do business with them again. But refunding me will get me off their back.

Re: I bricked then recovered my reMarkable 2

#240

Post by dimal »

callahad wrote: post #158
dimal wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought one and I don't understand the love. The device itself is wonderful. It's great that you _can_ ssh into it and do whatever. But by default, you can't even hook it up to DropBox/iCloud/GoogleDrive/whatever. The only supported way to get things off the device is by email, so in effect, in order for it to be useful, you _must_ set up rsync or some other custom process and risk bricking it and voiding your warra…

> you can't even hook it up to DropBox/iCloud/GoogleDrive/whatever. Dropbox and Google Drive integration arrived with the latest update earlier this month. > The only supported way to get things off the device is by email I think you're forgetting reMarkable's own built-in cloud storage which syncs the device with the desktop and mobile apps. Additionally, you can access a built-in web interface on the device wheneve…

Oh, that integration does changes things. I admit that I did forget about the built-in cloud storage, but that was more cumbersome than email for me. And plugging in a USB cable seemed particularly low-tech for 2021.
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