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Let me just add that I am not talking about a powerful all purpose computing device, because I think we pretty much have this with modern tablets/laptops. But

Let me just add that I am not talking about a powerful all purpose computing device, because I think we pretty much have this with modern tablets/laptops. But I do feel the computing part could be much more utilized to make taking notes and reading text better. I am thinking of Hypertext, drawing tools like sketchpad, simple programming tools etc. Not a device that does as much as possible badly, but one that could really push forward computing and text to get something more akin to digital paper we have seen for years in science fiction. I don't begrudge people who like the extremely limited use case it has today, I personally just don't really get it why I should spend hundreds of dollars on something that I can pretty much get with a notebook and my smartphone camera. On the other hand, this is a general problem these days that hampers innovation. As hard as hardware seems to be, it is obviously much easier than software, which is why so many devices these days fall short.

fouric 5y ago
> But I do feel the computing part could be much more utilized to make taking notes and reading text better. I am thinking of Hypertext, drawing tools like sketchpad, simple programming tools etc. The problem is that even those "simple" things are a massive amount of work to get right (where "right" means bug-free, performant, well-documented (or intuitive - pick at least one), flexible, and with an ergonomic interface). Additionally, they're significantly more work than the even simpler restricted feature-set that the reMarkable currently offers. I believe that the reMarkable developers are shooting for "quality over quantity" - polishing a small feature-set to a blinding shine, rather than trying to implement a larger feature-set poorly - that is, an intentional trade-off. I'm happy with that trade-off, but I know that others might not be - in which case, you'll probably get the Android device that other people in the thread are discussing. Also, the reMarkable is open - you can add all these things yourself, if you're sufficiently motivated. > something that I can pretty much get with a notebook The reMarkable's features, as limited as they are, are still miles beyond what a notebook gives you. You have backup, synchronization, document export (PDF, raster, SVG), undo/redo, multiple documents, digital storage, cut/copy/paste, erasing (pen can't be erased, pencil usually leaves marks and has other problems), multiple brushes, page reordering, multiple page templates (lined, grid, music, blank canvas, and more), layers, really good handwriting recognition, and more. Yes, it's light-years behind what we could have - but we're stuck in the place we're at because of a number of computing decisions that we made in the past (and continue to make now) that hamper creativity and flexibility, and overcoming those choices requires a lot of resources and the ability to ignore/bypass/counteract a massive amount of market inertia. The reMarkable team simply doesn't have those resources, so they have to make a trade-off - and the trade-off they made was quality over quantity (of features).
- codethief 5y ago
  > Also, the reMarkable is open - you can add all these things yourself, if you're sufficiently motivated. Since I had bought (and later returned) the RM2 largely due to misleading statements here on HN about it being "so very open", I'd like to add a warning to anyone reading the parent comment: The RM2 is open in the sense that anyone with a background in reverse engineering might be able to modify a few things. It is far from being an open platform, though. Remember how some people complain that Android is not really open because Google controls it, source code often gets released with a delay and some libraries are proprietary? Well, I've got bad news – in terms of openness Android is still light years ahead of the Remarkable software stack.

fouric 5y ago

> But I do feel the computing part could be much more utilized to make taking notes and reading text better. I am thinking of Hypertext, drawing tools like sketchpad, simple programming tools etc. The problem is that even those "simple" things are a massive amount of work to get right (where "right" means bug-free, performant, well-documented (or intuitive - pick at least one), flexible, and with an ergonomic interface). Additionally, they're significantly more work than the even simpler restricted feature-set that the reMarkable currently offers. I believe that the reMarkable developers are shooting for "quality over quantity" - polishing a small feature-set to a blinding shine, rather than trying to implement a larger feature-set poorly - that is, an intentional trade-off. I'm happy with that trade-off, but I know that others might not be - in which case, you'll probably get the Android device that other people in the thread are discussing. Also, the reMarkable is open - you can add all these things yourself, if you're sufficiently motivated. > something that I can pretty much get with a notebook The reMarkable's features, as limited as they are, are still miles beyond what a notebook gives you. You have backup, synchronization, document export (PDF, raster, SVG), undo/redo, multiple documents, digital storage, cut/copy/paste, erasing (pen can't be erased, pencil usually leaves marks and has other problems), multiple brushes, page reordering, multiple page templates (lined, grid, music, blank canvas, and more), layers, really good handwriting recognition, and more. Yes, it's light-years behind what we could have - but we're stuck in the place we're at because of a number of computing decisions that we made in the past (and continue to make now) that hamper creativity and flexibility, and overcoming those choices requires a lot of resources and the ability to ignore/bypass/counteract a massive amount of market inertia. The reMarkable team simply doesn't have those resources, so they have to make a trade-off - and the trade-off they made was quality over quantity (of features).

codethief 5y ago
> Also, the reMarkable is open - you can add all these things yourself, if you're sufficiently motivated. Since I had bought (and later returned) the RM2 largely due to misleading statements here on HN about it being "so very open", I'd like to add a warning to anyone reading the parent comment: The RM2 is open in the sense that anyone with a background in reverse engineering might be able to modify a few things. It is far from being an open platform, though. Remember how some people complain that Android is not really open because Google controls it, source code often gets released with a delay and some libraries are proprietary? Well, I've got bad news – in terms of openness Android is still light years ahead of the Remarkable software stack.