The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air • Hacker News Board

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#241

Post by akiselev » Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 3:32 PM UTC

0_____0 wrote: post #209

jader201 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have even rediscovered the visceral pleasantness of writing by hand. A bit unrelated, but I’ve often wondered if I’m in the minority that hates writing by hand. Compared to typing, I’m much slower, and it looks terrible — I print in caps just so that it’s remotely legible. I avoid handwriting at all costs, and loath the few times it’s required.

I long hated writing, and like you only wrote in block capitals, until I decided to re-learn to write cursive. Mostly I wanted to be able to write sweet paper notes to my lovers that didn't look like a 5th grader wrote them. I've found that when the process is approached as art, maybe even meditation, it's far more pleasurable than an act simply meant to record words on paper.

The Remarkable 2 drawing app also comes with a calligraphy pen, which does wonders for the readability of many people's cursive.

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#242

Post by keedon » Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 3:33 PM UTC

neves wrote: post #190

wastholm wrote: post #111

I bought a Remarkable 2 a month or two ago because I wanted a cool hackable e-ink Linux computer. But instead I immediately started using it as an e-book and document reader and note-taking pad, and nothing else. And, so far at least, that's perfect. The screen is beautiful (a bit gray, but the black is really black so the contrast is still good), the device is thin and reasonably light, I only have to charge it once…

Is it good to read PDFs?

Pretty good, and you can make notes & highlight them too

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#243

Post by Nursie » Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 3:35 PM UTC

jader201 wrote: post #202

wastholm wrote: post #111

I bought a Remarkable 2 a month or two ago because I wanted a cool hackable e-ink Linux computer. But instead I immediately started using it as an e-book and document reader and note-taking pad, and nothing else. And, so far at least, that's perfect. The screen is beautiful (a bit gray, but the black is really black so the contrast is still good), the device is thin and reasonably light, I only have to charge it once…

> I have even rediscovered the visceral pleasantness of writing by hand. A bit unrelated, but I’ve often wondered if I’m in the minority that hates writing by hand. Compared to typing, I’m much slower, and it looks terrible — I print in caps just so that it’s remotely legible. I avoid handwriting at all costs, and loath the few times it’s required.

I’m terrible at it, but I enjoy fountain pens. They make me slow down enough that it’s at least legible, where my biro-scrawl is very much not. It is hard not to let my brain race ahead though, as it does when I’m typing.

Also fountain pens are shiny and you can get all sorts of inks and accessories!

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#244

Post by agentultra » Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 3:36 PM UTC

I have an RM1 and RM2 and love the device.

My kid has been doing remote learning during the pandemic and using my RM1 for her school work. Wrote some scripts that sync the handouts her teacher posts online to the RM1 and she can work on them as if she was drawing on paper handouts like she would in school. This is much better than what the teachers were trying to teach her to do: using Adobe's PDF reader and marking up the PDFs using all those menus and buttons and typing things in.

I enjoy writing long-form especially when I need to think. I find that I get a lot of subtle anxiety and distraction using a modern computer these days that I can't just sit and think deeply about a problem anymore while using one. Instead I can take the RM2 to a quiet place, take my notes, and I can use the transcribe features to email myself plain text later or send a copy of individual pages where I've scribbled diagrams, etc. I then refine and edit my thoughts down later on a computer.

I want to be able to do more of my computing this way to be honest. Document-oriented, using long-form writing, being able to step away into different physical spaces without missing anything.

Overall though I am really happy with my RM2. It doesn't replace my paper journals... I still prefer those for longevity/archiving -- but it does great for ephemeral notes, books, marking up papers, etc. It's great for capturing the seed of ideas and letting me work without distractions.

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#245

Post by darkwater » Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 3:39 PM UTC

zaphar wrote: post #164

chrisweekly wrote: post #70

I'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 have a remarkable 2 as well and It's a fantastic notetaker and pdf annotation device. One benefit I didn't think about beforehand but use somewhat frequently is signing documents while working from home. Just print to pdf, copy to remarkable, sign, email back to sender. Way easier than printing, signing, scanning, and then emailing back.

In those cases I usually take the PDF, open it with LibreOffice and paste over my signature, scanned once upon a time. Never got any complaints, but it could be easily discovered for sure.

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#246

Post by nafizh » Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

wastholm wrote: post #111

I bought a Remarkable 2 a month or two ago because I wanted a cool hackable e-ink Linux computer. But instead I immediately started using it as an e-book and document reader and note-taking pad, and nothing else. And, so far at least, that's perfect. The screen is beautiful (a bit gray, but the black is really black so the contrast is still good), the device is thin and reasonably light, I only have to charge it once…

Same here. RM2 is probably one of my best investments for research and learning ever. Only drawback is I cannot read it without light at night. Would have been perfect if there was a back light like kindle.

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#247

Post by marshmellman » Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

jader201 wrote: post #202

wastholm wrote: post #111

I bought a Remarkable 2 a month or two ago because I wanted a cool hackable e-ink Linux computer. But instead I immediately started using it as an e-book and document reader and note-taking pad, and nothing else. And, so far at least, that's perfect. The screen is beautiful (a bit gray, but the black is really black so the contrast is still good), the device is thin and reasonably light, I only have to charge it once…

> I have even rediscovered the visceral pleasantness of writing by hand. A bit unrelated, but I’ve often wondered if I’m in the minority that hates writing by hand. Compared to typing, I’m much slower, and it looks terrible — I print in caps just so that it’s remotely legible. I avoid handwriting at all costs, and loath the few times it’s required.

Yes, I’m in that minority too. I’ve always had poor handwriting and always hated writing by hand.

After introspecting about it, I realized that, for me, it’s because of low grade stress during handwriting, as my attention is constantly churned between thinking about the content and about legibility.

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#248

Post by criddell » Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

dTal wrote: post #195

criddell wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So what does it achieve? Sustainability. The device isn't for everybody. The constraints are features. Sounds like you want something more like an iPad.

Except e-ink, and ultra-low-latency pen input, and ssh-able... I think the "interactive paper" vision is very different from the "ipad" vision.

The RM2 pen latency (20 ms) is double the iPad's (9 ms).

I wouldn't call the RM2 interactive paper. It's digital paper. Remarkable has focused their device to that niche and I think that was very smart of them. It's all about e-ink, crazy battery life, no distractions. I know a lot of people want more functionality - especially in the reader area, drawing apps, and calendar functions. So far Remarkable has managed to stay focused on the core functionality and I think the longer they can remain focused, the better off the company is. Every feature they add is something they have to test and maintain forever and that's a lot for a small company to do and still sell the device for about $400 (which is a bargain IMHO).

What I'd like to see is a bigger option. It would be nice to have at least a full A4/letter size screen. It would make dealing with PDFs a much better experience.

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#249

Post by darkwater » Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 3:44 PM UTC

atatatat wrote: post #199

throwuxiytayq wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remarkable is really a device for people who explicitly don't want those features. They're betting hard that the market exists, although it probably isn't as large as the market for an as-powerful-as-possible general-purpose computing device. I've seen it mentioned that someone got an USB keyboard working, and the device is pretty hackable overall (you can SSH to root over wifi out of the box!), but I think if you wa…

> you can SSH to root over wifi out of the box! Yeah. Let me rush to put that on my main network.

Do you have SSH-exploiting self-replicating worms running on your main network?

Re: The rise of E Ink Tablets and Note Takers: reMarkable 2 vs Onyx Boox Note Air

#250

Post by fouric » Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 3:47 PM UTC

mstipetic wrote: post #48

Deukhoofd wrote: post #19

I 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

"so little effort into software"? Quite the opposite, it seems like they've put a lot of effort into the software. Everything "just works" and is polished, unlike almost every other piece of software I've ever used.

Don't mistake a lack of advanced features for a lack of software effort. reMarkable is making an intentional trade-off - more feature quality, less feature quantity.