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reMarkable Connect subscription plans

support.remarkable.com

61–70 of 133 posts

Re: reMarkable Connect subscription plans

#61
post #8

I have a ReMarkable 1 and II (which I bought for my partner as a gift). They are nice e-readers that are well built. They really do fail on their key promise as a paper replacement however. The one saving grace of having spent so much money on the device is the "Send to ReMarkable" extension in my browser. I received the email a few days ago telling my that those cloud based services, which were advertised as part of…

The new service is currently offered for free to people who purchased a device from them before October 12, 2021, if they accept the new terms and conditions. I have to wonder how long that free subscription will last. There is nothing in the notices they sent about how long the subscription will last. There are FAQ entries, which, rather than making any concrete promises, have statements like 'We plan to offer free access to Connect for as long as we're able to. There are things we can't control that might affect this', and 'If we do make any changes, we’ll strive to give you free access for as long as you want it'. This type of change seems vaguely familiar, and I would not be surprised if 'things we can't control' will happen to arise about one or two years from now.

When the change does happen, the new terms of service require you agree that, by them sending you an email with 30 days notice, you'll be deemed to automatically consent to any new charges and fees if you continue to use the service, so you'll probably want to keep a close eye on your inbox:

>reMarkable reserves the right to change the subscription fees or applicable charges and to institute new charges and fees, upon thirty (30) days prior notice (which may be sent by email). Your continued use of reMarkable Connect after the end of the notice period of the aforementioned changes to fees or charges constitute your consent to such fees or charges.

None of this affects me too much, as I've never used their cloud services, use syncthing for synchronization, and bought the device for its (partial) openness, even if that openness appears to have been forced on them by GPLv3 requirements.

Re: reMarkable Connect subscription plans

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hardware for the gen 2 is pretty good in my opinion. The only "exotic software" is the notetaking app, the rest of the system is linux. The device is running ssh and the root password is in the licenses file. That's a lot more than you get from most devices of this type.

> The hardware for the gen 2 is pretty good in my opinion. My 5 year old android-tablet has more ram and cpu than the gen2 remarkable. So I assume they outsourced parts to the cloud simply because it's not running well enough on the tablet itself. > the rest of the system is linux Linux, especially on tablets is very exotic. There is no way to benefit from the big ecosystem on android or iOS. Everything must come fro…

What Android tablet with eInk did you buy that can display A4? Id be interested.

Re: reMarkable Connect subscription plans

#63
They sent new features over the years (i own one since they came first to market). I do think it's better to pay for subscription and get updates to your device than be forced to buy a new device every two years to get new software (aka Android business model).

Re: reMarkable Connect subscription plans

#64
post #16

User and avocate of the rm2 here; it completely replaced my notepad/s in and out of the office. Worth mentioning that they have given lifetime access to existing customers, but I had been planning on giving devices to staff at the end of the year, this announcement has significantly cooled my enthusiasm. If Remarkable staff are reading and are willing to extend the lifetime offer to existing clients for new purchases…

>Worth mentioning that they have given lifetime access to existing customers, but I had been planning on giving devices to staff at the end of the year, this announcement has significantly cooled my enthusiasm.

Notice that they avoid saying ‘lifetime’ anywhere, or saying anything about how long that access will last in their announcements and communications. They do discuss the length of the access in their FAQ, where they say that they plan to offer the free access for ´as long as we're able to’, but that ‘there are things we can't control that might affect this’, along with a number of other vague statements. The terms of service, even for the free subscription, has you agree that they can start charging you at any time after 30 days notice, with no other consent or acknowledgment from you. Everything seems to be written with the expectation of removing the free access after disappointment with the new subscription service subsides.

Re: reMarkable Connect subscription plans

#65
post #54
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like hardware. Love it infact. For me the subscription service itself is not the issue, it is far far far too expensive for what they offer in it, and they have broken my trust. The first thing I did after their announcement was disable auto-updates, I dont really use their cloud services anyway prefering to interact with the device either with SSH or a 3rd party tool (RCU), my fear now is a future update will disa…

disabling ssh would violate GPL licensing, right?

No, what makes you think that? OpenSSH isn't even GPL.

Re: reMarkable Connect subscription plans

#66
Man I have been a Remarkable user since the initial crowdfunding, but I feel like they are about to throw it.

Many of these features were free up until now. Yes, we get grandfathered in, for now, but you gotta agree to a new TOS which I am sure makes this a time limited offer if they so choose.

These niche devices need their community, people who are not only taking a lot of notes, drawing a ton or annotating many pdfs, but are willing to invest in this particular platform.

These people you probably want on your side as a company. And yet, look at this lackluster announcement.

Who is to read this and come away with a positive opinion? Current users don’t gain anything that wasn’t already free or announced. They just face the danger of eventually having to pay for what they thought was free. And new users? 8 bucks for yet another cloud storage and little else.

I mean, I appreciate that we now teach revelation principle and two part tariffs in intro econ and mba classes, but you can also blow it in other ways, exhibit A: this announcement.

Re: reMarkable Connect subscription plans

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The hardware for the gen 2 is pretty good in my opinion. My 5 year old android-tablet has more ram and cpu than the gen2 remarkable. So I assume they outsourced parts to the cloud simply because it's not running well enough on the tablet itself. > the rest of the system is linux Linux, especially on tablets is very exotic. There is no way to benefit from the big ecosystem on android or iOS. Everything must come fro…

What Android tablet with eInk did you buy that can display A4? Id be interested.

There is one actually. https://shop.boox.com/products/maxlumi2

Re: reMarkable Connect subscription plans

#68
post #44

Going to tell my story, again, as I think it's important. Remarkable seem like the type of company that are pouring money into marketing and not much else. To their detriment. I bought a Remarkable 2 in September. Realized I did not want it, because it was missing a core feature I needed (the ability to search hand written notes, which Goodnotes does, Remarkable does not). Remarkable sends their products via DHL. Who…

I’ve had a similar experience with my RM1 that had a broken screen when I started it for the first time. It literally took months before I could get a replacement. Their TrustPilot page is a stream of horror stories.

Re: reMarkable Connect subscription plans

#69
$100/year or else I "won’t unlock the full potential of (my) paper tablet" that I just paid $400 for? $60/year for cloud storage? What happened to connecting to the Dropbox/OneDrive/iCloud storage I already have and calling it day? Oh, right, recurring revenue. (EDIT: OIC, 3rd-party cloud storage is in the $100/year tier. But then WTF would I need your unlimited cloud...oh, never mind.)

I've recently been trying to talk myself into a remarkable. Now I don't have to. Thanks, Remarkable.

Re: reMarkable Connect subscription plans

#70

I am surprised to see no mentioned of Onyx Boox Air in this thread. I bought it recently instead of Remarkable 2 and it's amazing. You simply can't beat open ecosystem like android with some proprietary crap (unless you're FAANG). Having chrome browser fully in-sync with desktop one is a killer feature for me.

I went ahead and bought a boox air within a week of the original connect service announcement (yet to arrive). I originally wanted a RM after trying a coworker's RM1 but the connect announcement pushed me away.

With supernote currently giving a roadmap that improves handwriting recognition and boox allegedly having the ability to convert and search handwritten notes already, the remarkable connect plan is very unattractive.

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