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I have been very happy with my ReMarkable 1, and have ordered the ReMarkable 2.0. Hacker News might be interested in the active development community around th

I have been very happy with my ReMarkable 1, and have ordered the ReMarkable 2.0. Hacker News might be interested in the active development community around the device: https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable The device is open. It's just an embedded linux device. You can ssh into it, and run arbitrary code. The SDK is based on Qt. You can also connect a keyboard to it over a USB-on-the-go port. I have been imagining porting a lightweight Qt-based virtual terminal to the device and using it as an e-ink unix terminal. Alas, I have not yet had the cycles to complete this project.

_ph_ 6y ago
That would be awesome. I have ordered the Remarkable and would like to use it as a dashboard connected to my computer. Just to display time, the calendar and other information which needs to be updated only very infrequently.
- moonbug 6y ago
  that's mental.
  - _ph_ 6y ago
    Doesn't mean, I wouldn't use it for its advertised purposes too. But I really would like an eInk display as an add-on to my computer - unfortunately, the Kindle is not so open. Would also be great as an extra screen for e.g. man pages while you are working on your main screen.
    - ncmncm 6y ago
      There is also a smaller, cheaper, and less slick device at Crowd Supply made from recycled Kindles. https://www.crowdsupply.com/e-radionica/inkplate-6 https://www.crowdsupply.com/e-radionica/inkplate-6 15cm, 800x600, 8M RAM, 4M flash, wifi/btle, usb/sdio/i2c, 3 capacitive-touch buttons, battery charger, microSD slot, GPIO pins, and is programmable in microPython. Three-bit greyscale pixels. (I don't have one.)
    - moonbug 6y ago
      then get one of these for £50 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waveshare-HAT-Resolution-Electronic-Controller/dp/B075R4QY3L https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waveshare-HAT-Resolution-Electronic...
    - eichin 6y ago
      I don't know if the remarkable does this, but the onyx boox max 2 has an hdmi input (on some tiny connector.) I've used it from my laptop as a second screen, and displayed emacs and xterm on it. Really need to craft up some kind of bracket to use it as an outdoor primary laptop screen...
- joezydeco 6y ago
  There are alternatives that are cheaper: https://www.amazon.com/waveshare-7-5inch-HAT-Raspberry-Consumption/dp/B075R4QY3L https://www.amazon.com/waveshare-7-5inch-HAT-Raspberry-Consu...
  - _ph_ 6y ago
    Thanks for the link, that looks interesting. I have to see, where I could buy it (Amazon doesn't ship it to Germany). I will certainly check this out for tinkering with my Pie. Of course, I wouldn't buy the ReMarkable just for using it as a second display, but that would be an added value, if it could be done with some more software I can install on it. My main usage would be as a reader/note tool.
    - mkl 6y ago
      Waveshare have lots of such screens, big, small, some colour: https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/epaper-1.htm https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/epaper-1....
matsemann 6y ago
Case in point, this thread about running Parabola as OS on the reMarkable was also on the front page today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294176
submeta 6y ago
Running Emacs on it would be cool. - Can‘t do it on my expensive iPad Pro.
- h3ctic 6y ago
  I'm planning on trying to do that as soon as I get mine. Being able to use org mode and org roam would be a huge plus.
  - submeta 6y ago
    Can we imagine this device to be something like a mix between the Kindle reader combined with a tablet running Linux?
    - h3ctic 6y ago
      That's what I hope! And looking at the rehackable GitHub repo I think it's not far fetched
- davisr 6y ago
  You can! Check out the demo video at 13m30s. It demos the X version of Emacs, but Emacs runs faster in '-nw' mode from the console. http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/ http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/
- 0x38B 6y ago
  It's not emacs, but I've been enjoying iVim (1) on my iPad Pro. With `:idocuments` I can edit files in Working Copy (it opens the Files picker). I also copied my plugins (Goyo for focus, etc) and config from my linux box. 1: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ivim/id1266544660 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ivim/id1266544660
- saagarjha 6y ago
  https://ish.app https://ish.app
davisr 6y ago
You can, with Parabola-rM. http://davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm http://davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm
- jbeard4 6y ago
  Oh wow, that is pretty cool. It is a different approach from what I was envisioning, which was taking an existing lightweight terminal codebase written in Qt[0], and porting it to the ReMarkable's Qt SDK. The Parabola approach is actually running X Windows, which is pretty amazing! [0] https://github.com/lxqt/qterminal https://github.com/lxqt/qterminal
- ianai 6y ago
  Really curious whether anyone’s actually used Parabola-rM often? It lacks support for Wi-Fi and the sdma port. Not sure what that leaves you to rely on for file transfers or much of anything. I can at least imagine a lack of networking as a plus though for lack of distractions.
  - davisr 6y ago
    SDMA isn't related to networking. As I mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294868 The device is exposed over USB as a composite device, consisting of a virtual Ethernet port and a virtual serial port. Network communications may happen over that link, as well as SSH/SCP'ing files. It also supports USB OTG, so one could plug in a libre-compatible Wi-Fi card and use that.
    - borgel 6y ago
      Ah, I was wondering about OTG support, thanks for mentioning it!
dheera 6y ago
- What is the latest word (as of 2020) on reading Kindle books on the ReMarkable? Is there a tool that makes it easy to buy Kindle books and strip them of their DRM? - Is the ReMarkable capable of running an open source OS behind the hood? Is it a hacker-friendly piece of hardware in case ReMarkable runs out of business in the future? I was thinking about getting the ReMarkable 2 if only because my Kindle's display is too small. For ebooks it's okay but I do would like to be able to use an eink reader for sheet music as well.
- fancy_pantser 6y ago
  > Is there a tool that makes it easy to buy Kindle books and strip them of their DRM Yes, the most common one is Calibre, which is also great for converting formats and bulk operations. There is a "DeDRM Plugin" for it on GitHub that does what you're asking. > Is the ReMarkable capable of running an open source OS behind the hood? Yes, and there has been some success with this including Parabola-rM. However, there seems to be no open driver for the radio chipset (so no WiFi!).
  - kadoban 6y ago
    The ReMarkable is already running an open source OS behind the hood. It's a bit complicated, the UI isn't open, but it's just running on linux, you can write and run your own programs.
    - dheera 6y ago
      Is it an ARM Debian-based distro or Android or something else?
      - kadoban 6y ago
        It's definitely an ARM linux distro, I'm not entirely sure which one to be honest.
        devnonymous 6y ago
laksdjfkasljdf 6y ago
Do you use the text OCR feature? Is that component opensource?
- AshamedCaptain 6y ago
  Note they mean open as in "it runs a random old Linux kernel and you can have the root password", not as in "open source". Nothing whasoever from their software is actually open source, and nothing indicates they may not decide to simply close down the platform in the future (e.g. for "security" reasons)
  - owenversteeg 6y ago
    Sure, but that's miles ahead of almost any other consumer device you can buy today. I'll take it.
    - jbeard4 6y ago
      Yes, I meant "open" in the sense that you do not need to jailbreak it to run software that has not been approved by the manufacturer, not "open" in the sense that the operating system is open source. Although, I think a lot of their operating system is open source and on their github page (linux kernel and uboot configuration): https://github.com/reMarkable https://github.com/reMarkable Their Qt-based shell software, xochitl, is not open source.
      - AshamedCaptain 6y ago
        In other words, they open sourced just what they're legally obliged to. The fact that this is surprising nowadays is heavily depressing.
    - AshamedCaptain 6y ago
      I think it's not as good as you think. There is a difference between "it happens to be open" and "manufacturer cares", and here it's more like the former. The experience here is in fact identical to e.g. using any device whose bootloader has been cracked. You are locked to very old kernel versions, or attempts to run a mainline kernel in various degrees of stability (or lack of). You cannot really modify the existing user interface to your liking, as it is even more closed than Android; it's either take it or replace it entirely. And if you stay on the official firmware then there is a non-negligible risk that they will lock it down. I've been through that route... It's in no way comparable to a some other devices (mentioned on HN too) where e.g. manufacturer actually cares about it. I agree it's technically better than "locked down bootloader with few chances of ever being unlocked" like some newer devices are, just not "miles better". Plus the fact that it does run GNU/Linux rather than Android makes it more hacker-friendly out of box, at least for some types of hackers.
krick 6y ago
It's funny how your comment immediately makes me want to buy it, because the description on the site with all these silly photos and such for some reason got me thinking like "looks kinda nice, but since it's obviously something very Apple-like, it will be as restrictive as it gets, I won't be able to use it without some obligatory shitty web-account and I probably even won't be able to read *.cbz comics on it, so... nah, no way I'm paying €400 for it, and it's not really worth to spend more time looking into it". Now I'm not sure what effect this site has on the average customer, and if making it more selling for me would make it less selling for them, but they actually lost me, and after reading your comment I'm seriously likely to pre-order. And it's not about your positive evaluation, of course. So I've got a feeling all these marketing people do advertising wrong somehow.
- tyre 6y ago
  I had the same thought. Knowing we can develop software on top is delightful
- capableweb 6y ago
  Same here last time ReMarkable came up. Saw the marketing page and really liked the hardware and expected it to be locked down, so moved on to reading the comments. Bunch of comments describing how it's open, runs linux and you can basically just ssh into it and run stuff. Made a pre-order right there and then and now waiting for it. I think we're simply such a small user-base that they don't think to include it on their landing pages. Most people probably don't care. But since we're on HN, we most likely care to some degree.
  - amirhirsch 6y ago
    Same boat lol. Saw the open-source comments and decided to buy one so I could make a sheet-music reader that changes pages automatically using facial cues from an ESP32-CAM
    - chrisweekly 6y ago
      What a great idea! How can I learn if/when you build that music reader app?
tyre 6y ago
Fantastic. I didn’t see anything about this on their site (admittedly a small percent of users would know/care what this means.) Do you know of any RSS or saved articles sync? I use Feedly right now. Would love to save Reader Mode versions of long form to read/annotate. Right now I print them but…a lot of paper.
- jbeard4 6y ago
  I use Mozilla Pocket for saved articles, and I have been meaning to try this: https://github.com/glidergeek/pocket2rm https://github.com/glidergeek/pocket2rm
cominous 6y ago
Reminds me of this digital typewriter project using a e-ink display: https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer The problem with this project was the lack of a affordable e-ink display with a decent refresh rate. Would love to see a real terminal on the ReMarkable. A terminal + vim + usb keyboard would be the perfect distaction-free writing tool.
- jbeard4 6y ago
  > Reminds me of this digital typewriter project using a e-ink display: https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer Related: https://github.com/dps/remarkable-keywriter https://github.com/dps/remarkable-keywriter > Would love to see a real terminal on the ReMarkable. A terminal + vim + usb keyboard would be the perfect distaction-free writing tool. I agree: e-ink display + terminal + vim + mechanical keyboard would make me very happy.
- arkenflame 6y ago
  I would buy the RM2 in a heartbeat if it supported a keyboard over usb or Bluetooth. Having an outdoor-friendly typewriter where text is saved seamlessly would be awesome for focused writing. I did my best to make it easy on a phone+keyboard+kindle (with SolarWriter https://msolomon.github.io/solarwriter-website/ https://msolomon.github.io/solarwriter-website/ ), but the Remarkable is so so close to the ideal experience—it just needs keyboard support.
  - rattray 6y ago
    Same! There's https://github.com/dps/remarkable-keywriter https://github.com/dps/remarkable-keywriter but its author is, ah, busy, so may need another person to adapt it to work with bluetooth and the rM2 (if possible)
- saipu8Al 6y ago
  > Would love to see a real terminal on the ReMarkable. A terminal + vim + usb keyboard would be the perfect distaction-free writing tool. someone seems to have ported a terminal already https://github.com/dixonary/fingerterm-reMarkable https://github.com/dixonary/fingerterm-reMarkable
danShumway 6y ago
The device is open -- does that extend to the notes and filesystem itself? I'm very interested in the ReMarkable 2, but I want to be able to write scripts to handle stuff like syncing. If this is something where I know I can get good integration with Emacs/Org-mode on my desktop (letting me insert diagrams on the fly into org-mode files, making one searchable interface between handwritten notes and typed notes, etc), I'd be very tempted to preorder right now. Especially if the handwriting recognition stuff they have is something I could hook around.
- chabad360 6y ago
  The notes file format itself, I believe is proprietary, but it's been reverse engineered. The general storage I don't believe is actually folder based, but have a look at the unofficial wiki, it should answer most of your questions.
  - sukilot 6y ago
    "reverse engineered" means you can't trust them not to break things at any time
- jbeard4 6y ago
  > The device is open -- does that extend to the notes and filesystem itself? I'm very interested in the ReMarkable 2, but I want to be able to write scripts to handle stuff like syncing. Yes, the notes just live on the filesystem. You can fetch them using scp or rsync. They are in a proprietary file format, but they are not encrypted, and I think there are some open source projects on github that let you view them on your desktop. > Especially if the handwriting recognition stuff they have is something I could hook around. I think the handwriting stuff lives on their cloud and is proprietary, so I have never tried it.
- lottin 6y ago
  In version 1 the converted text couldn't be saved on the device, it could only be sent by e-mail, and so because the text didn't exist on the filesystem it couldn't be accessed via ssh obviously.
mahastore 6y ago
Is there any open source (DIY) hardware that goes with these APIs? Since $400 seems a little steep for a white screen I suspect it is possible to DIY similar hardware too. Any ideas?
- aidenn0 6y ago
  Historically the "current generation" of e-ink displays are notoriously annoying to hack on with devkits being expensive and waveforms being available only under NDA. This was true 5 years ago, not sure if it's still true.
- kruffin 6y ago
  This may interest you; might not be what you were asking for. I haven't built one, but keep an eye on it and dream of free time to surface mount solder and poke around with it. The repo used to have a cost estimate and think it came out to around $100 but my memory may be fuzzy. https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book
- rcoder 6y ago
  I've done a fair bit of tinkering with ePaper displays attached to little Linux and MCU boards, and it is not trivial. Few if any have touch overlays, the graphics APIs are usually at the level of: magic initialization happens in this opaque chunk of bit-bashing, then you get a raw framebuffer; have fun! You absolutely could homebrew a touchscreen ePaper "slate" with a similar broad set of features, but much like the Libre laptops (Purism, Novena, etc.) it's going to be slow, power-hungry, and chunky compared to a complete consumer device like the reMarkable.
- beezle 6y ago
  It is not just a "white screen." The display is designed specifically for use as a paper substitute for writing/drawing. It actually feels like paper when using the stylus.
kevinmgranger 6y ago
It's been verified that the ReMarkable 2 is just as open as the 1?
chrisweekly 6y ago
Thanks for the link. > I have been imagining porting a lightweight Qt-based virtual terminal to the device and using it as an e-ink unix terminal. Alas, I have not yet had the cycles to complete this project. That would be really cool! I pre-ordered a RM2 (my 1st such device) and am in the November cohort... if you make time for said terminal, I'd love to know about it.
soperj 6y ago
What's it like for drawing?
snarfy 6y ago
> The device is open. It's just an embedded linux device. That's all I needed to hear. Preordered.
j45 6y ago
Really nice to see high end hardware that is completely open.
jinnko 6y ago
Boox devices are also very accessible as the run Android and you can install anything on them either from the Play store (requires manual setup at first) or F-droid, along with the usual adb access. I have the Nova Pro which I absolutely love. It has configurable screen refresh rates so it's possible to use a web browser with scrolling. You can install your favourite file sync app. Lately I've been using KDE connect to send/receive files. Writing on it is good and the notes app supports OCR that I found can make reasonable sense of my chicken scratches.
- gbraad 6y ago
  Been using Onyx/Boox since ever. Own a Max2 and Note2 for instance. Happy with them... Use the Wacom One pen for input. Android apps a plenty
- Kudos 6y ago
  Boox are GPL violators though.
  - filmgirlcw 6y ago
    Yeah, that's one of my main concerns with the Boox. A good friend of mine loves hers [1], but the unclear point of origin, the GPL violations (and I don't even like the GPL that much as a license -- but if you're going to build off of a GPL base, you better follow the damn license!), and the fact that Android -- while flexible -- is not ideal for note taking stuff (my friend said all the Android note taking apps are unusable so you're stuck with the built-in app -- and I'm less confident about the upkeep of that app when the company won't respect the GPL for the base OS/firmware of the device) is why I went with a reMarkable instead. But Onyx definitely has a much wider variety of E Ink devices that's for sure. [1]: https://gizmodo.com/i-unabashedly-love-this-android-e-ink-tablet-1844727465 https://gizmodo.com/i-unabashedly-love-this-android-e-ink-ta...
  - jinnko 6y ago
    > Boox are GPL violators though. Hadn't heard of this. Can you provide some references? A quick DDG search didn't turn up anything.
throwaway_827 6y ago
I'm not sure they realize what a big selling point this is. Feel free to tell them here: https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/requests/new https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/requests/new Continually impressed with this company.
- lloyddobbler 6y ago
  I'm impressed as well - but I do think many of us here are overestimating the size of the audience that sort of technical messaging would apply to. It being open is a big deciding factor for us on HN - but there's a much larger audience for whom it would simply dilute the messaging. (I'm guessing their product marketing team did a substantial bit of research on this before going live). I could, however, see them building out a 'developer community'-focused microsite. But I wouldn't expect them to put anything related to that on their homepage, as it would likely be confusing and irrelevant to their target audience.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    On the other hand, their marketing copy isn't going to win them a thousand-device order from a large company, the way satisfying a hacker who leads corporate IT can.
GekkePrutser 6y ago
I'd love an eInk terminal actually!! Or even an eInk laptop. Would be great to work on some code in the sun.
- FullyFunctional 6y ago
  I've been chasing that dragon for years. Just look at the video hosted http://davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm http://davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm and imagine a terminal app that was actually optimized around eInk (and using an external keyboard). I remain convinced that it could be completely usable for non GUI work.
  - davisr 6y ago
    Take a look here: https://old.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/iis4fo/emacs_on_remarkable/ https://old.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/iis4fo/em... Emacs in '-nw' mode uses mostly black/white, with external keyboard via USB OTG.
wyoh 6y ago
I get their ads all the time on IG, but they should have advertised it to me as open, Qt powered, and ssh friendly.
astrojams 6y ago
Your comment just made me buy it. I didn't realize it was an open device running linux. That sold me. There are probably some marketing lessons to be learned from these comments.
mirekrusin 6y ago
Ok, this comment convinced me to get it.
blisseyGo 6y ago
they really should also use this ability to be able to ssh and develop etc in their marketing material. It might get even more users.
crooked-v 6y ago
This reminds me that what I'd really like in an ebook reader is something that will sync a local library down from 'the cloud' in some automated way over wifi, without having to manually go in and update or import or whatever with books like everything else I've seen. ReMarkable seems like it wouldn't be practical for that for lack of enough storage for my Calibre library, though.
- dredmorbius 6y ago
  Remarkable's onboard storage paucity is incomprehensible.
  - crooked-v 6y ago
    Not just that, but that combined with the lack of a microSD card slot.
- x87678r 6y ago
  Kobo readers have overdrive so you can do this. Even better has Pocket reader so you can store web pages to read later.
  - crooked-v 6y ago
    I mean 'library' as in 'my collection of ePub and PDF files', not a lending library.
brightball 6y ago
Any way to sync it with Linux? It strikes me as odd that it’s that open, Linux based...but doesn’t have a Linux app.
- kadoban 6y ago
  You can ssh in either over wifi or via usb (it exposes a network device in usb). Everything is just files in there. The notes formats are proprietary, but there's tools out there for them.
- youdonthavekids 6y ago
  Why would that be odd? Look at it from a sales perspective, how many more people will buy this is there is a linux application (LA) and how much will it cost to build and support (BS) LA - BS = probably a negative number.
Teknoman117 6y ago
Look at u/rmhack on reddit. They managed to get a normal arm Linux image to boot on it. My main complaints are that it's not encrypted at rest, and the only way to use cloud features are to go through reMarkable's cloud (and you can't host a private instance). Makes it really hard to get approved in an enterprise environment.
- Nerada 6y ago
  I sent them an email asking about encryption at rest; the lack of reply was what made me decline to approve the purchase at our company. It's a shame because it does look like an incredible device apart from that.
darau1 6y ago
Can I bug you when you get the remarkable 2.0 to find out if it still does all that?
jberryman 6y ago
I thought I would like using an ereader to read PDFs but the touch screen (on this kobo) actually really bothered me; I always felt like I had to be very careful where I put my fingers and was always accidentally turning pages. Do you find that bothers you, or can you just hold it like a notebook?
- CandyFace 6y ago
  I haven't experienced such issues and I've had mine for years. On the first remarkable model you either use the physical buttons to turn page or use the somewhat recent swiping feature. Touching the surface while reading doesn't do anything, you have to explicitly swipe left or right to turn a page. Moving your finger or hand doesn't turn a page either, so I'd say you're pretty safe in that regard. The reading experience on the remarkable is however not as feature rich as eink tablets that label themselves as 'ebook readers' but otherwise I think it's fine. I primarily use mine to draw and write notes, which it does very well but I also read.
Thorentis 6y ago
If it had an SD/microSD reader, the openness would make me what to pre-order one. I can just imagine the 8GB internal storage quickly running out with all the extra stuff I'd want to do to it.
- beezle 6y ago
  It might be possible to add a usb-c flashdrive. I'll let you know in a few weeks when I get mine. In any event, document storage of 8GB is quite a lot - I have many pdf textbooks on mine.
  - crooked-v 6y ago
    My collection of ebooks is about 50 GB. Once you get into art-heavy PDFs like those for tabletop games you can be looking at 5-25 MB per file, and that adds up fast.
h0l0gr4ph1c 6y ago
You are say that the ReMarkable is open, but where is the GPLv2 code for the underlying Linux OS? As far as I can see there is nothing on the site that makes mention to it. That includes the Legal section which makes no mention of the GPL licensing.
- striking 6y ago
  https://github.com/reMarkable https://github.com/reMarkable
  - h0l0gr4ph1c 6y ago
    Thanking you.
- saipu8Al 6y ago
  The (L)GPL license only requires you to offer source code to the customers (the people that get a copy of the binaries). The (L)GPLv2 requires offering physical copies of the source, so the required information is in a printed notice in the box (on the first tablet). (L)GPLv3, which e. g. Qt is under, allows for only distributing the source digitally. The full list of licenses for all pieces of software are on the device as well, and the SSH information is available as a part of the license page (explaining how the (L)GPLv3 requires companies to give access to the devices/anti-tivoization). The (L)GPL requirement seems to be also fulfilled with https://remarkable.engineering/deploy/copyleft_sources/ https://remarkable.engineering/deploy/copyleft_sources/ apparently (the github repos are probably just more convenient for them).
tobias2014 6y ago
Do we know the ReMarkable 2.0 will be just as open as well?
- ninjin 6y ago
  I mailed them back in March about SSH access when they announced the 2.0 and this is what they responded: “Appreciate the kind words and support. We are working to improve our products based on the feedback from our customers. If you are still wondering about SSH support for reMarkable 2, the answer is yes, the reMarkable 2 will have SSH access, just like reMarkable 1.” Not same as guaranteeing the same level of openness, but it is indicative and promising at the very least.
KingMachiavelli 6y ago
Have you used it as an e-reader (using KOReader I would assume)? How is the experience? It sounds like the prefect e-ink device if the hardware lends itself to other purposes.
shirakawasuna 6y ago
Man, they should really advertise the openness more. I'm considering this as a general re-reader and notebook replacement, now.
xs83 6y ago
I sent mine back when I first got it (for a number of reasons) but this makes me want to re-buy one, I figured it would become hackable as I seem to remember the team saying they wanted to encourage it!
MobiusHorizons 6y ago
For anyone interested in this type of setup, I highly recommend considering the onyx book note 2, (or max 3, or nova 2) it runs android 9.1 with a relatively fast 8-core processor, have bluetooth and wifi, and I have found that the experience in termux is very good. I currently use one with a brydge ipad keyboard which fits quite well.
ranaexmachina 6y ago
I bought the ReMarkable 1 because I thought it was just a Linux device. It turned out to be not exactly true. Their whole interface is closed source and they use a (IIRC) closed but reverse-engineered format to store PDF metadata. I installed Syncthing to synchronize papers and sheet music but because of their metadata format it didn't work for me at all, I got annoyed, eventually stopped bothering and sent it back. Also, their GUI/DE is closed so there's no (easy) way to extend it with nice functionality. In my opinion the software was the bad part about that device that lead to a really bad experience with that device. The hardware was great though. Wasn't super fast but it was light, felt good. I was very excited when I first took it out of the box. They did a lot of great stuff with the ReMarkable but unfortunately it felt a lot closer to the semi-open Android than the Linux on my desktop.
dotancohen 6y ago
> The device is open. It's just an embedded linux > device. You can ssh into it, and run arbitrary code. > The SDK is based on Qt. I use a Barnes & Noble e-ink Nook (Kindle competitor) to run AnkiDroid [1][2]. I have tried to use some note-taking Android apps on the device, but they all had horrible feedback due to the very slow CPU and very limited memory of the device. Is it possible to run either an Android app (AnkiDroid) or a Qt/Python Linux application (Anki) on the ReMarkable 2? If so, I would happily buy such a device. [1] https://apps.ankiweb.net/ https://apps.ankiweb.net/ [2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ichi2.anki https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ichi2.anki
jrib 6y ago
I contacted their support about the openness of their device. This is their response in case others are interested: Aug 28, 2020, 3:44 PM GMT+2 Hello there. Users can gain root access to the device by using SSH, so the device is open for developing your own software. The GPL and LGPL version 3 requires us to give users access to their own devices. It's part of the anti-tivoization clauses in the licenses. A lot of our software is open-source. You'll find a lot of our open source code here: https://github.com/reMarkable/. If you're interested in developing for the reMarkable, a good place to start would be on here https://remarkable.engineering/deploy/. Note that we do not currently provide any support for SSH related issues. Accessing the device and making changes through SSH is at the customers own risk.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ldarby 6y ago
  Thanks, this was the question I had before purchasing, if they might decide to pull a Tivo in a future software update and kill off everything on https://github.com/reHackable https://github.com/reHackable. I mean, with enough resources they could replace everything with non-GPL3 licenses then lock it down, but that doesn't look likely, so I think I will go ahead and buy this. Some of the projects on https://github.com/reHackable https://github.com/reHackable talk about having to be re-installed after upgrades, and other unfriendly vendor behaviour (e.g. https://github.com/reHackable/scripts/wiki/webui_invincibility.sh https://github.com/reHackable/scripts/wiki/webui_invincibili...), which is slightly worrying, it'd be more assuring if they had better support for 3rd party software, or at least just a webpage saying "yes you can install 3rd party software, but note that it's not preserved over upgrades". The company I work for also sells a linux box, allows 3PS, and does have such a web page. Such a webpage might also cater to all the other people here commenting that their marketing dept is ignoring us.
  - jrib 6y ago
    Yeah I'm still on the fence but decided i'd take them up on the 30 day free return and evaluate it directly
ant6n 6y ago
Is the screen more paper-like than the olpc?

_ph_ 6y ago

That would be awesome. I have ordered the Remarkable and would like to use it as a dashboard connected to my computer. Just to display time, the calendar and other information which needs to be updated only very infrequently.

moonbug 6y ago
that's mental.
- _ph_ 6y ago
  Doesn't mean, I wouldn't use it for its advertised purposes too. But I really would like an eInk display as an add-on to my computer - unfortunately, the Kindle is not so open. Would also be great as an extra screen for e.g. man pages while you are working on your main screen.
  - ncmncm 6y ago
    There is also a smaller, cheaper, and less slick device at Crowd Supply made from recycled Kindles. https://www.crowdsupply.com/e-radionica/inkplate-6 https://www.crowdsupply.com/e-radionica/inkplate-6 15cm, 800x600, 8M RAM, 4M flash, wifi/btle, usb/sdio/i2c, 3 capacitive-touch buttons, battery charger, microSD slot, GPIO pins, and is programmable in microPython. Three-bit greyscale pixels. (I don't have one.)
  - moonbug 6y ago
    then get one of these for £50 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waveshare-HAT-Resolution-Electronic-Controller/dp/B075R4QY3L https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waveshare-HAT-Resolution-Electronic...
  - eichin 6y ago
    I don't know if the remarkable does this, but the onyx boox max 2 has an hdmi input (on some tiny connector.) I've used it from my laptop as a second screen, and displayed emacs and xterm on it. Really need to craft up some kind of bracket to use it as an outdoor primary laptop screen...
joezydeco 6y ago
There are alternatives that are cheaper: https://www.amazon.com/waveshare-7-5inch-HAT-Raspberry-Consumption/dp/B075R4QY3L https://www.amazon.com/waveshare-7-5inch-HAT-Raspberry-Consu...
- _ph_ 6y ago
  Thanks for the link, that looks interesting. I have to see, where I could buy it (Amazon doesn't ship it to Germany). I will certainly check this out for tinkering with my Pie. Of course, I wouldn't buy the ReMarkable just for using it as a second display, but that would be an added value, if it could be done with some more software I can install on it. My main usage would be as a reader/note tool.
  - mkl 6y ago
    Waveshare have lots of such screens, big, small, some colour: https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/epaper-1.htm https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/epaper-1....

matsemann 6y ago

Case in point, this thread about running Parabola as OS on the reMarkable was also on the front page today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294176

submeta 6y ago

Running Emacs on it would be cool. - Can‘t do it on my expensive iPad Pro.

h3ctic 6y ago
I'm planning on trying to do that as soon as I get mine. Being able to use org mode and org roam would be a huge plus.
- submeta 6y ago
  Can we imagine this device to be something like a mix between the Kindle reader combined with a tablet running Linux?
  - h3ctic 6y ago
    That's what I hope! And looking at the rehackable GitHub repo I think it's not far fetched
davisr 6y ago
You can! Check out the demo video at 13m30s. It demos the X version of Emacs, but Emacs runs faster in '-nw' mode from the console. http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/ http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/
0x38B 6y ago
It's not emacs, but I've been enjoying iVim (1) on my iPad Pro. With `:idocuments` I can edit files in Working Copy (it opens the Files picker). I also copied my plugins (Goyo for focus, etc) and config from my linux box. 1: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ivim/id1266544660 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ivim/id1266544660
saagarjha 6y ago
https://ish.app https://ish.app

davisr 6y ago

You can, with Parabola-rM. http://davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm http://davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm

jbeard4 6y ago
Oh wow, that is pretty cool. It is a different approach from what I was envisioning, which was taking an existing lightweight terminal codebase written in Qt[0], and porting it to the ReMarkable's Qt SDK. The Parabola approach is actually running X Windows, which is pretty amazing! [0] https://github.com/lxqt/qterminal https://github.com/lxqt/qterminal
ianai 6y ago
Really curious whether anyone’s actually used Parabola-rM often? It lacks support for Wi-Fi and the sdma port. Not sure what that leaves you to rely on for file transfers or much of anything. I can at least imagine a lack of networking as a plus though for lack of distractions.
- davisr 6y ago
  SDMA isn't related to networking. As I mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24294868 The device is exposed over USB as a composite device, consisting of a virtual Ethernet port and a virtual serial port. Network communications may happen over that link, as well as SSH/SCP'ing files. It also supports USB OTG, so one could plug in a libre-compatible Wi-Fi card and use that.
  - borgel 6y ago
    Ah, I was wondering about OTG support, thanks for mentioning it!

dheera 6y ago

- What is the latest word (as of 2020) on reading Kindle books on the ReMarkable? Is there a tool that makes it easy to buy Kindle books and strip them of their DRM? - Is the ReMarkable capable of running an open source OS behind the hood? Is it a hacker-friendly piece of hardware in case ReMarkable runs out of business in the future? I was thinking about getting the ReMarkable 2 if only because my Kindle's display is too small. For ebooks it's okay but I do would like to be able to use an eink reader for sheet music as well.

fancy_pantser 6y ago
> Is there a tool that makes it easy to buy Kindle books and strip them of their DRM Yes, the most common one is Calibre, which is also great for converting formats and bulk operations. There is a "DeDRM Plugin" for it on GitHub that does what you're asking. > Is the ReMarkable capable of running an open source OS behind the hood? Yes, and there has been some success with this including Parabola-rM. However, there seems to be no open driver for the radio chipset (so no WiFi!).
- kadoban 6y ago
  The ReMarkable is already running an open source OS behind the hood. It's a bit complicated, the UI isn't open, but it's just running on linux, you can write and run your own programs.
  - dheera 6y ago
    Is it an ARM Debian-based distro or Android or something else?
    - kadoban 6y ago
      It's definitely an ARM linux distro, I'm not entirely sure which one to be honest.
      - devnonymous 6y ago

laksdjfkasljdf 6y ago

Do you use the text OCR feature? Is that component opensource?

AshamedCaptain 6y ago
Note they mean open as in "it runs a random old Linux kernel and you can have the root password", not as in "open source". Nothing whasoever from their software is actually open source, and nothing indicates they may not decide to simply close down the platform in the future (e.g. for "security" reasons)
- owenversteeg 6y ago
  Sure, but that's miles ahead of almost any other consumer device you can buy today. I'll take it.
  - jbeard4 6y ago
    Yes, I meant "open" in the sense that you do not need to jailbreak it to run software that has not been approved by the manufacturer, not "open" in the sense that the operating system is open source. Although, I think a lot of their operating system is open source and on their github page (linux kernel and uboot configuration): https://github.com/reMarkable https://github.com/reMarkable Their Qt-based shell software, xochitl, is not open source.
    - AshamedCaptain 6y ago
      In other words, they open sourced just what they're legally obliged to. The fact that this is surprising nowadays is heavily depressing.
  - AshamedCaptain 6y ago
    I think it's not as good as you think. There is a difference between "it happens to be open" and "manufacturer cares", and here it's more like the former. The experience here is in fact identical to e.g. using any device whose bootloader has been cracked. You are locked to very old kernel versions, or attempts to run a mainline kernel in various degrees of stability (or lack of). You cannot really modify the existing user interface to your liking, as it is even more closed than Android; it's either take it or replace it entirely. And if you stay on the official firmware then there is a non-negligible risk that they will lock it down. I've been through that route... It's in no way comparable to a some other devices (mentioned on HN too) where e.g. manufacturer actually cares about it. I agree it's technically better than "locked down bootloader with few chances of ever being unlocked" like some newer devices are, just not "miles better". Plus the fact that it does run GNU/Linux rather than Android makes it more hacker-friendly out of box, at least for some types of hackers.

krick 6y ago

It's funny how your comment immediately makes me want to buy it, because the description on the site with all these silly photos and such for some reason got me thinking like "looks kinda nice, but since it's obviously something very Apple-like, it will be as restrictive as it gets, I won't be able to use it without some obligatory shitty web-account and I probably even won't be able to read *.cbz comics on it, so... nah, no way I'm paying €400 for it, and it's not really worth to spend more time looking into it". Now I'm not sure what effect this site has on the average customer, and if making it more selling for me would make it less selling for them, but they actually lost me, and after reading your comment I'm seriously likely to pre-order. And it's not about your positive evaluation, of course. So I've got a feeling all these marketing people do advertising wrong somehow.

tyre 6y ago
I had the same thought. Knowing we can develop software on top is delightful
capableweb 6y ago
Same here last time ReMarkable came up. Saw the marketing page and really liked the hardware and expected it to be locked down, so moved on to reading the comments. Bunch of comments describing how it's open, runs linux and you can basically just ssh into it and run stuff. Made a pre-order right there and then and now waiting for it. I think we're simply such a small user-base that they don't think to include it on their landing pages. Most people probably don't care. But since we're on HN, we most likely care to some degree.
- amirhirsch 6y ago
  Same boat lol. Saw the open-source comments and decided to buy one so I could make a sheet-music reader that changes pages automatically using facial cues from an ESP32-CAM
  - chrisweekly 6y ago
    What a great idea! How can I learn if/when you build that music reader app?

tyre 6y ago

Fantastic. I didn’t see anything about this on their site (admittedly a small percent of users would know/care what this means.) Do you know of any RSS or saved articles sync? I use Feedly right now. Would love to save Reader Mode versions of long form to read/annotate. Right now I print them but…a lot of paper.

jbeard4 6y ago
I use Mozilla Pocket for saved articles, and I have been meaning to try this: https://github.com/glidergeek/pocket2rm https://github.com/glidergeek/pocket2rm

cominous 6y ago

Reminds me of this digital typewriter project using a e-ink display: https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer The problem with this project was the lack of a affordable e-ink display with a decent refresh rate. Would love to see a real terminal on the ReMarkable. A terminal + vim + usb keyboard would be the perfect distaction-free writing tool.

jbeard4 6y ago
> Reminds me of this digital typewriter project using a e-ink display: https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer https://alternativebit.fr/posts/ultimate-writer Related: https://github.com/dps/remarkable-keywriter https://github.com/dps/remarkable-keywriter > Would love to see a real terminal on the ReMarkable. A terminal + vim + usb keyboard would be the perfect distaction-free writing tool. I agree: e-ink display + terminal + vim + mechanical keyboard would make me very happy.
arkenflame 6y ago
I would buy the RM2 in a heartbeat if it supported a keyboard over usb or Bluetooth. Having an outdoor-friendly typewriter where text is saved seamlessly would be awesome for focused writing. I did my best to make it easy on a phone+keyboard+kindle (with SolarWriter https://msolomon.github.io/solarwriter-website/ https://msolomon.github.io/solarwriter-website/ ), but the Remarkable is so so close to the ideal experience—it just needs keyboard support.
- rattray 6y ago
  Same! There's https://github.com/dps/remarkable-keywriter https://github.com/dps/remarkable-keywriter but its author is, ah, busy, so may need another person to adapt it to work with bluetooth and the rM2 (if possible)
saipu8Al 6y ago
> Would love to see a real terminal on the ReMarkable. A terminal + vim + usb keyboard would be the perfect distaction-free writing tool. someone seems to have ported a terminal already https://github.com/dixonary/fingerterm-reMarkable https://github.com/dixonary/fingerterm-reMarkable

danShumway 6y ago

The device is open -- does that extend to the notes and filesystem itself? I'm very interested in the ReMarkable 2, but I want to be able to write scripts to handle stuff like syncing. If this is something where I know I can get good integration with Emacs/Org-mode on my desktop (letting me insert diagrams on the fly into org-mode files, making one searchable interface between handwritten notes and typed notes, etc), I'd be very tempted to preorder right now. Especially if the handwriting recognition stuff they have is something I could hook around.

chabad360 6y ago
The notes file format itself, I believe is proprietary, but it's been reverse engineered. The general storage I don't believe is actually folder based, but have a look at the unofficial wiki, it should answer most of your questions.
- sukilot 6y ago
  "reverse engineered" means you can't trust them not to break things at any time
jbeard4 6y ago
> The device is open -- does that extend to the notes and filesystem itself? I'm very interested in the ReMarkable 2, but I want to be able to write scripts to handle stuff like syncing. Yes, the notes just live on the filesystem. You can fetch them using scp or rsync. They are in a proprietary file format, but they are not encrypted, and I think there are some open source projects on github that let you view them on your desktop. > Especially if the handwriting recognition stuff they have is something I could hook around. I think the handwriting stuff lives on their cloud and is proprietary, so I have never tried it.
lottin 6y ago
In version 1 the converted text couldn't be saved on the device, it could only be sent by e-mail, and so because the text didn't exist on the filesystem it couldn't be accessed via ssh obviously.

mahastore 6y ago

Is there any open source (DIY) hardware that goes with these APIs? Since $400 seems a little steep for a white screen I suspect it is possible to DIY similar hardware too. Any ideas?

aidenn0 6y ago
Historically the "current generation" of e-ink displays are notoriously annoying to hack on with devkits being expensive and waveforms being available only under NDA. This was true 5 years ago, not sure if it's still true.
kruffin 6y ago
This may interest you; might not be what you were asking for. I haven't built one, but keep an eye on it and dream of free time to surface mount solder and poke around with it. The repo used to have a cost estimate and think it came out to around $100 but my memory may be fuzzy. https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book
rcoder 6y ago
I've done a fair bit of tinkering with ePaper displays attached to little Linux and MCU boards, and it is not trivial. Few if any have touch overlays, the graphics APIs are usually at the level of: magic initialization happens in this opaque chunk of bit-bashing, then you get a raw framebuffer; have fun! You absolutely could homebrew a touchscreen ePaper "slate" with a similar broad set of features, but much like the Libre laptops (Purism, Novena, etc.) it's going to be slow, power-hungry, and chunky compared to a complete consumer device like the reMarkable.
beezle 6y ago
It is not just a "white screen." The display is designed specifically for use as a paper substitute for writing/drawing. It actually feels like paper when using the stylus.

kevinmgranger 6y ago

It's been verified that the ReMarkable 2 is just as open as the 1?

chrisweekly 6y ago

Thanks for the link. > I have been imagining porting a lightweight Qt-based virtual terminal to the device and using it as an e-ink unix terminal. Alas, I have not yet had the cycles to complete this project. That would be really cool! I pre-ordered a RM2 (my 1st such device) and am in the November cohort... if you make time for said terminal, I'd love to know about it.

soperj 6y ago

What's it like for drawing?

snarfy 6y ago

> The device is open. It's just an embedded linux device. That's all I needed to hear. Preordered.

j45 6y ago

Really nice to see high end hardware that is completely open.

jinnko 6y ago

Boox devices are also very accessible as the run Android and you can install anything on them either from the Play store (requires manual setup at first) or F-droid, along with the usual adb access. I have the Nova Pro which I absolutely love. It has configurable screen refresh rates so it's possible to use a web browser with scrolling. You can install your favourite file sync app. Lately I've been using KDE connect to send/receive files. Writing on it is good and the notes app supports OCR that I found can make reasonable sense of my chicken scratches.

gbraad 6y ago
Been using Onyx/Boox since ever. Own a Max2 and Note2 for instance. Happy with them... Use the Wacom One pen for input. Android apps a plenty
Kudos 6y ago
Boox are GPL violators though.
- filmgirlcw 6y ago
  Yeah, that's one of my main concerns with the Boox. A good friend of mine loves hers [1], but the unclear point of origin, the GPL violations (and I don't even like the GPL that much as a license -- but if you're going to build off of a GPL base, you better follow the damn license!), and the fact that Android -- while flexible -- is not ideal for note taking stuff (my friend said all the Android note taking apps are unusable so you're stuck with the built-in app -- and I'm less confident about the upkeep of that app when the company won't respect the GPL for the base OS/firmware of the device) is why I went with a reMarkable instead. But Onyx definitely has a much wider variety of E Ink devices that's for sure. [1]: https://gizmodo.com/i-unabashedly-love-this-android-e-ink-tablet-1844727465 https://gizmodo.com/i-unabashedly-love-this-android-e-ink-ta...
- jinnko 6y ago
  > Boox are GPL violators though. Hadn't heard of this. Can you provide some references? A quick DDG search didn't turn up anything.

throwaway_827 6y ago

I'm not sure they realize what a big selling point this is. Feel free to tell them here: https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/requests/new https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/requests/new Continually impressed with this company.

lloyddobbler 6y ago
I'm impressed as well - but I do think many of us here are overestimating the size of the audience that sort of technical messaging would apply to. It being open is a big deciding factor for us on HN - but there's a much larger audience for whom it would simply dilute the messaging. (I'm guessing their product marketing team did a substantial bit of research on this before going live). I could, however, see them building out a 'developer community'-focused microsite. But I wouldn't expect them to put anything related to that on their homepage, as it would likely be confusing and irrelevant to their target audience.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  On the other hand, their marketing copy isn't going to win them a thousand-device order from a large company, the way satisfying a hacker who leads corporate IT can.

GekkePrutser 6y ago

I'd love an eInk terminal actually!! Or even an eInk laptop. Would be great to work on some code in the sun.

FullyFunctional 6y ago
I've been chasing that dragon for years. Just look at the video hosted http://davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm http://davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm and imagine a terminal app that was actually optimized around eInk (and using an external keyboard). I remain convinced that it could be completely usable for non GUI work.
- davisr 6y ago
  Take a look here: https://old.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/iis4fo/emacs_on_remarkable/ https://old.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/iis4fo/em... Emacs in '-nw' mode uses mostly black/white, with external keyboard via USB OTG.

wyoh 6y ago

I get their ads all the time on IG, but they should have advertised it to me as open, Qt powered, and ssh friendly.

astrojams 6y ago

Your comment just made me buy it. I didn't realize it was an open device running linux. That sold me. There are probably some marketing lessons to be learned from these comments.

mirekrusin 6y ago

Ok, this comment convinced me to get it.

blisseyGo 6y ago

they really should also use this ability to be able to ssh and develop etc in their marketing material. It might get even more users.

crooked-v 6y ago

This reminds me that what I'd really like in an ebook reader is something that will sync a local library down from 'the cloud' in some automated way over wifi, without having to manually go in and update or import or whatever with books like everything else I've seen. ReMarkable seems like it wouldn't be practical for that for lack of enough storage for my Calibre library, though.

dredmorbius 6y ago
Remarkable's onboard storage paucity is incomprehensible.
- crooked-v 6y ago
  Not just that, but that combined with the lack of a microSD card slot.
x87678r 6y ago
Kobo readers have overdrive so you can do this. Even better has Pocket reader so you can store web pages to read later.
- crooked-v 6y ago
  I mean 'library' as in 'my collection of ePub and PDF files', not a lending library.

brightball 6y ago

Any way to sync it with Linux? It strikes me as odd that it’s that open, Linux based...but doesn’t have a Linux app.

kadoban 6y ago
You can ssh in either over wifi or via usb (it exposes a network device in usb). Everything is just files in there. The notes formats are proprietary, but there's tools out there for them.
youdonthavekids 6y ago
Why would that be odd? Look at it from a sales perspective, how many more people will buy this is there is a linux application (LA) and how much will it cost to build and support (BS) LA - BS = probably a negative number.

Teknoman117 6y ago

Look at u/rmhack on reddit. They managed to get a normal arm Linux image to boot on it. My main complaints are that it's not encrypted at rest, and the only way to use cloud features are to go through reMarkable's cloud (and you can't host a private instance). Makes it really hard to get approved in an enterprise environment.

Nerada 6y ago
I sent them an email asking about encryption at rest; the lack of reply was what made me decline to approve the purchase at our company. It's a shame because it does look like an incredible device apart from that.

darau1 6y ago

Can I bug you when you get the remarkable 2.0 to find out if it still does all that?

jberryman 6y ago

I thought I would like using an ereader to read PDFs but the touch screen (on this kobo) actually really bothered me; I always felt like I had to be very careful where I put my fingers and was always accidentally turning pages. Do you find that bothers you, or can you just hold it like a notebook?

CandyFace 6y ago
I haven't experienced such issues and I've had mine for years. On the first remarkable model you either use the physical buttons to turn page or use the somewhat recent swiping feature. Touching the surface while reading doesn't do anything, you have to explicitly swipe left or right to turn a page. Moving your finger or hand doesn't turn a page either, so I'd say you're pretty safe in that regard. The reading experience on the remarkable is however not as feature rich as eink tablets that label themselves as 'ebook readers' but otherwise I think it's fine. I primarily use mine to draw and write notes, which it does very well but I also read.

Thorentis 6y ago

If it had an SD/microSD reader, the openness would make me what to pre-order one. I can just imagine the 8GB internal storage quickly running out with all the extra stuff I'd want to do to it.

beezle 6y ago
It might be possible to add a usb-c flashdrive. I'll let you know in a few weeks when I get mine. In any event, document storage of 8GB is quite a lot - I have many pdf textbooks on mine.
- crooked-v 6y ago
  My collection of ebooks is about 50 GB. Once you get into art-heavy PDFs like those for tabletop games you can be looking at 5-25 MB per file, and that adds up fast.

h0l0gr4ph1c 6y ago

You are say that the ReMarkable is open, but where is the GPLv2 code for the underlying Linux OS? As far as I can see there is nothing on the site that makes mention to it. That includes the Legal section which makes no mention of the GPL licensing.

striking 6y ago
https://github.com/reMarkable https://github.com/reMarkable
- h0l0gr4ph1c 6y ago
  Thanking you.
saipu8Al 6y ago
The (L)GPL license only requires you to offer source code to the customers (the people that get a copy of the binaries). The (L)GPLv2 requires offering physical copies of the source, so the required information is in a printed notice in the box (on the first tablet). (L)GPLv3, which e. g. Qt is under, allows for only distributing the source digitally. The full list of licenses for all pieces of software are on the device as well, and the SSH information is available as a part of the license page (explaining how the (L)GPLv3 requires companies to give access to the devices/anti-tivoization). The (L)GPL requirement seems to be also fulfilled with https://remarkable.engineering/deploy/copyleft_sources/ https://remarkable.engineering/deploy/copyleft_sources/ apparently (the github repos are probably just more convenient for them).

tobias2014 6y ago

Do we know the ReMarkable 2.0 will be just as open as well?

ninjin 6y ago
I mailed them back in March about SSH access when they announced the 2.0 and this is what they responded: “Appreciate the kind words and support. We are working to improve our products based on the feedback from our customers. If you are still wondering about SSH support for reMarkable 2, the answer is yes, the reMarkable 2 will have SSH access, just like reMarkable 1.” Not same as guaranteeing the same level of openness, but it is indicative and promising at the very least.

KingMachiavelli 6y ago

Have you used it as an e-reader (using KOReader I would assume)? How is the experience? It sounds like the prefect e-ink device if the hardware lends itself to other purposes.

shirakawasuna 6y ago

Man, they should really advertise the openness more. I'm considering this as a general re-reader and notebook replacement, now.

xs83 6y ago

I sent mine back when I first got it (for a number of reasons) but this makes me want to re-buy one, I figured it would become hackable as I seem to remember the team saying they wanted to encourage it!

MobiusHorizons 6y ago

For anyone interested in this type of setup, I highly recommend considering the onyx book note 2, (or max 3, or nova 2) it runs android 9.1 with a relatively fast 8-core processor, have bluetooth and wifi, and I have found that the experience in termux is very good. I currently use one with a brydge ipad keyboard which fits quite well.

ranaexmachina 6y ago

I bought the ReMarkable 1 because I thought it was just a Linux device. It turned out to be not exactly true. Their whole interface is closed source and they use a (IIRC) closed but reverse-engineered format to store PDF metadata. I installed Syncthing to synchronize papers and sheet music but because of their metadata format it didn't work for me at all, I got annoyed, eventually stopped bothering and sent it back. Also, their GUI/DE is closed so there's no (easy) way to extend it with nice functionality. In my opinion the software was the bad part about that device that lead to a really bad experience with that device. The hardware was great though. Wasn't super fast but it was light, felt good. I was very excited when I first took it out of the box. They did a lot of great stuff with the ReMarkable but unfortunately it felt a lot closer to the semi-open Android than the Linux on my desktop.

dotancohen 6y ago

> The device is open. It's just an embedded linux > device. You can ssh into it, and run arbitrary code. > The SDK is based on Qt. I use a Barnes & Noble e-ink Nook (Kindle competitor) to run AnkiDroid [1][2]. I have tried to use some note-taking Android apps on the device, but they all had horrible feedback due to the very slow CPU and very limited memory of the device. Is it possible to run either an Android app (AnkiDroid) or a Qt/Python Linux application (Anki) on the ReMarkable 2? If so, I would happily buy such a device. [1] https://apps.ankiweb.net/ https://apps.ankiweb.net/ [2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ichi2.anki https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ichi2.anki

jrib 6y ago

I contacted their support about the openness of their device. This is their response in case others are interested: Aug 28, 2020, 3:44 PM GMT+2 Hello there. Users can gain root access to the device by using SSH, so the device is open for developing your own software. The GPL and LGPL version 3 requires us to give users access to their own devices. It's part of the anti-tivoization clauses in the licenses. A lot of our software is open-source. You'll find a lot of our open source code here: https://github.com/reMarkable/. If you're interested in developing for the reMarkable, a good place to start would be on here https://remarkable.engineering/deploy/. Note that we do not currently provide any support for SSH related issues. Accessing the device and making changes through SSH is at the customers own risk.

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ldarby 6y ago
Thanks, this was the question I had before purchasing, if they might decide to pull a Tivo in a future software update and kill off everything on https://github.com/reHackable https://github.com/reHackable. I mean, with enough resources they could replace everything with non-GPL3 licenses then lock it down, but that doesn't look likely, so I think I will go ahead and buy this. Some of the projects on https://github.com/reHackable https://github.com/reHackable talk about having to be re-installed after upgrades, and other unfriendly vendor behaviour (e.g. https://github.com/reHackable/scripts/wiki/webui_invincibility.sh https://github.com/reHackable/scripts/wiki/webui_invincibili...), which is slightly worrying, it'd be more assuring if they had better support for 3rd party software, or at least just a webpage saying "yes you can install 3rd party software, but note that it's not preserved over upgrades". The company I work for also sells a linux box, allows 3PS, and does have such a web page. Such a webpage might also cater to all the other people here commenting that their marketing dept is ignoring us.
- jrib 6y ago
  Yeah I'm still on the fence but decided i'd take them up on the 30 day free return and evaluate it directly

ant6n 6y ago

Is the screen more paper-like than the olpc?