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Reviving a four year old reMarkable 2

oskrim.github.io

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Re: Reviving a four year old reMarkable 2

#51

Post by kstrauser »

reticulated wrote: post #48
kstrauser wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Examples: it sucks as an ereader, even though the hardware is super capable of it. It doesn’t have a built-in dictionary to look up words or check spelling. You can’t make links between documents or to different pages in the current document. Their hardware is top notch, but I found the software to be so hamstrung that I returned mine after a few weeks. Basically, if you want to have exactly a physical paper notebook…

Please point to the marketing page where it's primary purpose is declared as an ereader. My car has four wheels, that doesn't make it a good ice-cream van

I’ve heard this excuse for it plenty of times, and it rings hollow and/or Stockholm syndrome. People (rightfully) made fun of Apple for not including a calculator on iPadOS for the longest time. Imagine Apple claiming “we never advertised it as a calculator!”, which is technically true, but clearly silly because it’s an obvious use case that everyday users would want.

Well, same here: a Remarkable tablet is nearly identical to a Kobo or Kindle in form factor and basic capabilities. It even includes an ereader app. But the app, frankly, sucks. They could swapped in KOreader and called it a day. But instead of that, they — or rather, their supporters — give the laughable excuse that “it’s not an ereader”. Well, an iPad’s also not a calculator, and yet…

If your car has four wheels, room to walk around inside, and built in refrigerators that are mounted upside down for some reason, maybe the factory would say that they didn’t sell you an ice cream truck, but everyone else looking at it is going to wonder why they didn’t make it possible to stock popsicles while they were at it.

Re: Reviving a four year old reMarkable 2

#52

Post by oskrim »

reticulated wrote: post #49

Manually updating a config file to enable the web server was a wholly unnecessary step as that's just a toggle in the "Storage" section of settings. reMarkable software has its faults, but I keep coming back to them for the best-in-class hardware, developer-friendly platform, which itself spawned an active developer community. Could it be an easier platform to develop on? Sure. But that hasn't stopped a huge number o…

There is indeed a "USB web interface" toggle under Storage. I've added a note in the final section, thanks.

Re: Reviving a four year old reMarkable 2

#53

Post by reticulated »

kstrauser wrote: post #51
reticulated wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please point to the marketing page where it's primary purpose is declared as an ereader. My car has four wheels, that doesn't make it a good ice-cream van

I’ve heard this excuse for it plenty of times, and it rings hollow and/or Stockholm syndrome. People (rightfully) made fun of Apple for not including a calculator on iPadOS for the longest time. Imagine Apple claiming “we never advertised it as a calculator!”, which is technically true, but clearly silly because it’s an obvious use case that everyday users would want. Well, same here: a Remarkable tablet is nearly id…

Similar in form factor and basic capabilities, sure. But. And it's a big one. The reMarkable tablets are aimed for content creation rather than consumption. Nobody realistically buys a reMarkable device when Kindles, Kobos, etc. all perform that task much better with all the connected ebook stores, whatever DRM keeps the publishers and authors happy, etc. etc. That's just not reMarkable's core business and likely never will be.

I'm not sure what the "ereader app" is that you refer to. reMarkables come with exactly one app "xochitl" that handles all user interaction. Sure, they let you access PDFs to annotate - but again the primary use case isn't to read them. ePub files are consciously converted into PDFs to support that premise.

KOreader, whilst an excellent reading app, doesn't support annotations. So it's not obvious why reMarkable would consider that an enhancement given the primary device purpose.

My car doesn't have space to walk around, nor refrigerators. That's why I bought it. Same with reMarkable devices. I buy and use them for the content creation functionality. I have a Kindle for the times when I want to swap to "consumer mode"

Re: Reviving a four year old reMarkable 2

#54

Post by essive »

reticulated wrote: post #44
essive wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As did the reMarkable support for that device...

Bad take. The rM2 is still receiving software updates and likely to for the next 3-4 years. All that happened is they stopped selling it. Source: https://remarkable.com/products/remarkable-2

It was a joke, son

Re: Reviving a four year old reMarkable 2

#55

Post by kstrauser »

reticulated wrote: post #53
kstrauser wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve heard this excuse for it plenty of times, and it rings hollow and/or Stockholm syndrome. People (rightfully) made fun of Apple for not including a calculator on iPadOS for the longest time. Imagine Apple claiming “we never advertised it as a calculator!”, which is technically true, but clearly silly because it’s an obvious use case that everyday users would want. Well, same here: a Remarkable tablet is nearly id…

Similar in form factor and basic capabilities, sure. But. And it's a big one. The reMarkable tablets are aimed for content creation rather than consumption. Nobody realistically buys a reMarkable device when Kindles, Kobos, etc. all perform that task much better with all the connected ebook stores, whatever DRM keeps the publishers and authors happy, etc. etc. That's just not reMarkable's core business and likely nev…

Well, nonetheless, those missing features and a thousand other papercuts led me to send it back and upgrade to a Supernote. It’s not perfect, but hasn’t deliberately kneecapped itself with some purity vision that just makes it frustrating to use. And honestly, I’d rather carry a Kobo and a paper notebook than a Kobo and a digital notebook that could’ve been an ereader, too, except “LOL we don’t make ereaders”.

Re: Reviving a four year old reMarkable 2

#56

Post by oskrim »

bossyTeacher wrote: post #32

This is the achilles heel of modern tech. Devices are just so brittle and if it is not online 24/7 on returning back online, you need to perform incantations to get things working. Long shell life is a taboo in the tech world where 5 years is a long time.

That was my initial reaction as well, when I first found the device not being able to update. But look what was the saving grace: SSH/USB/HTTP/Unix with root access, instead of closed systems, hardware that you own 100%.

As software is increasingly "solved" by AI I think this is what will become most important

Re: Reviving a four year old reMarkable 2

#58

Post by carlosjobim »

kstrauser wrote: post #24
carlosjobim wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is a "general purpose device"? An eInk tablet is pretty far away from being "general purpose" as far as I can tell. Should I buy a Ford Ranger and demand that the company makes it easy to convert it to a lawn mover?

Examples: it sucks as an ereader, even though the hardware is super capable of it. It doesn’t have a built-in dictionary to look up words or check spelling. You can’t make links between documents or to different pages in the current document. Their hardware is top notch, but I found the software to be so hamstrung that I returned mine after a few weeks. Basically, if you want to have exactly a physical paper notebook…

Good point. I would expect most eink tablets to be good ereaders.

Re: Reviving a four year old reMarkable 2

#60

Post by dismalaf »

thepoet wrote: post #19
GCUMstlyHarmls wrote: post #13

This is pretty refreshing to read. "Its just linux", seems to ship with SSH/root terminal enabled (over USB at least, with a simple way to enable networked access), built in webserver, just uses systemd for service control, etc. They even list it in the user guide https://remarkable.guide/guide/access/ssh.html along with an "developing software" guide https://remarkable.guide/devel/index.html . Maybe other tablets ar…

I have a Kobo that was kept unused in a similar state for a few years until I decide to build an SDK platform to develop and deploy apps on it. My Kobo does not support apps on its Linux platform. I have been using it to read HN, as an RSS reader over my news and blog sources, generate audiobooks on topics I want to understand with ElevenLabs, Exa and OpenAI and listen via connecting its bluetooth to my speakers and…

> It is amazing that a $100 device with a single core and 512mb RAM can do so much and run for so long.

Not to sound like certain influencers but computers are pretty fast and the state of modern software is incredibly wasteful.

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