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> Remarkable is advertised as an E-Ink reader as well as a writing device. In reality, this only works if you have e-pub books on your hard drive. Where can you

> Remarkable is advertised as an E-Ink reader as well as a writing device. In reality, this only works if you have e-pub books on your hard drive. Where can you get e-pub books? Basically nowhere What? I'll give you that the two largest distributors, Amazon and Barnes and Nobles don't sell epub but pretty much everyone else who sells ebooks does including Google Books. Also, you can use Calibre to turn any other ebook format into an epub. https://calibre-ebook.com/ https://calibre-ebook.com/

coldtea 5y ago
>Remarkable is advertised as an E-Ink reader as well as a writing device. In reality, this only works if you have e-pub books on your hard drive. Where can you get e-pub books? Basically nowhere Has this guy ever heard of zlib?
- Bud 5y ago
  Not to mention MyAnonymouse...
  - michaelmrose 5y ago
    Is this really worth the hassle given the prevalence of resources that don't require membership? I've only ever joined one private tracker and it wasn't materially better than what could be found for free and it was run by raging assholes. Kind of colored my view of that scene.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  Hard Drive? The world has moved to solid state, no wonder he is struggling!
eslaught 5y ago
Does Remarkable support Adobe DRM? If not, then the vast majority of places you can get ePubs either (a) won't be compatible, or (b) won't have the ebooks you care about (because publishers only sell them with DRM). So no, unless you're going out of your way to use a workflow that's unsupported and of questionable legality (DRM stripping), you probably can't read ebooks you care about on this device.
- Spivak 5y ago
  I don’t think there’s questionable legality of stripping DRM to read books you have a license to on your own device.
  - meibo 5y ago
    There may not be, but it's a pain in the ass. To strip Kindle books, you need to use an outdated Kindle PC client that uses an old encryption and may or may not break at any point in time, stop it from updating, track down some shifty plugin for Calibre that handles like a house of cards, etc.
    - input_sh 5y ago
      Years ago, yeah. It took some time to figure out the new .kfx format. Now? If you're on a macOS/Windows no setup is necessary, provided you have the Kindle app installed. If you have a physical Kindle and you use Linux, the setup is as easy as looking up a serial number in settings and entering it into the plugin's settings. If you don't have a physical one and no access to a Windows machine, then it is a bit tricky, yeah. That said, I assume this doesn't apply to at least 70% of its users. As for the plugin's stability, I have yet to experience a problem after like 7-8 years of usage. I've upgraded from Calibre v4 to v5 before the plugin supported v5, but that's about it.
      - bmsleight_ 5y ago
        Appropriate any pointers, as I want to copy and paste from an book on the Kindle ended up camera photo to ocr. I am on Linux (Debian) and struggle to complete this task. Either I am not good a google or need to re-try.
  - djbusby 5y ago
    You don't think that; publishers however think differently. If you think it's user-hostile, they think it's right way.
    - 5y ago
dheera 5y ago
Personally I use a Boox e-Ink tablet, which just runs Android. That means I can just install the Kindle app and read Kindle books without any fuss. I do hate DRM with a passion but sometimes I just want to get on with my day and this solution works for me. I really like the look of the Remarkable though, I just wish it ran Android.
- gigglesupstairs 5y ago
  How is it? Does it feel fast like iPad? Or at least responsive even if not that that fast? I have Paperwhite and while I still love it to death after 8 years, I just can’t live with the lag with traditional e-ink tablets like Paperwhite.
  - sithadmin 5y ago
    Boox tablets seem to refresh faster than Kindle Paperwhites, but the appearance can be janky looking because Android isn't optimized for running on eInk. It takes some time to adjust to. This isn't a big problem for reading, but navigating through the general system UI and Android apps can be offputting.
  - bigbillheck 5y ago
    You can tweak some of the refresh rate settings. My experience is it's a lot faster than a paperwhite (to the point that now when I use the kindle I wonder why it's so slow), but nowhere close to an ipad.
  - dheera 5y ago
    No, it's super laggy just like all e-Ink devices, except for the natively-optimized note taking app which feels fine for writing and taking notes. Don't expect an iPad experience at all. The reasons I use it are - To get eye strain relief when reading ebooks, academic papers, or long PDF documents - To be able to read those things in bright sunlight while outdoors - Insanely good battery life compared to a traditional tablet, I only charge mine about once a week - Screen continues to display while consuming zero power, after device goes to sleep, which is useful for practicing music, and for placing reference documents on the table while I work on e.g. electronics, or recipes while working in the kitchen. I don't have to keep smacking it every 2 minutes to wake it up, and it won't run out of battery displaying a single PDF page for several days
marcus_holmes 5y ago
or https://z-lib.org/ https://z-lib.org/ if you're not too squeamish about copyright
- 19h 5y ago
  or Library Genesis: https://libgen.is/ https://libgen.is/
filmgirlcw 5y ago
Well, even if you do that, the e-reader on the Remarkable is really, really poor. It’s a note taking device that can be hacked into doing some other stuff with varying degrees of success.
Yoric 5y ago
I'm not sure how they get there. I have a Kobo and ~100% of my hundreds of books are epub.
sohkamyung 5y ago
Liberture maintains a list of sites that sell DRM-free eBooks [1] [1] https://www.libreture.com/bookshops/ https://www.libreture.com/bookshops/
katabasis 5y ago
I own a Remarkable 2 and really love it, but I agree that the lack of some kind of integrated ebook marketplace is a missed opportunity. I would love to be able to just buy a bestselling book through the device (or it's accompanying app) and read it immediately. Is there anyone the company could partner with to enable such a feature? I don't want to pirate books or hassle with Calibre, I just want to read books on this very well-designed device and I'm willing to pay $$ to do that.
- bubblethink 5y ago
  That's not a missed opportunity. Not every company has to be some megacorp doing everything and siphoning off all data from every pore of the planet. Why can't you just make hardware and call it a day ?

coldtea 5y ago

Bud 5y ago
Not to mention MyAnonymouse...
- michaelmrose 5y ago
  Is this really worth the hassle given the prevalence of resources that don't require membership? I've only ever joined one private tracker and it wasn't materially better than what could be found for free and it was run by raging assholes. Kind of colored my view of that scene.
ClumsyPilot 5y ago
Hard Drive? The world has moved to solid state, no wonder he is struggling!

eslaught 5y ago

Does Remarkable support Adobe DRM? If not, then the vast majority of places you can get ePubs either (a) won't be compatible, or (b) won't have the ebooks you care about (because publishers only sell them with DRM). So no, unless you're going out of your way to use a workflow that's unsupported and of questionable legality (DRM stripping), you probably can't read ebooks you care about on this device.

Spivak 5y ago
I don’t think there’s questionable legality of stripping DRM to read books you have a license to on your own device.
- meibo 5y ago
  There may not be, but it's a pain in the ass. To strip Kindle books, you need to use an outdated Kindle PC client that uses an old encryption and may or may not break at any point in time, stop it from updating, track down some shifty plugin for Calibre that handles like a house of cards, etc.
  - input_sh 5y ago
    Years ago, yeah. It took some time to figure out the new .kfx format. Now? If you're on a macOS/Windows no setup is necessary, provided you have the Kindle app installed. If you have a physical Kindle and you use Linux, the setup is as easy as looking up a serial number in settings and entering it into the plugin's settings. If you don't have a physical one and no access to a Windows machine, then it is a bit tricky, yeah. That said, I assume this doesn't apply to at least 70% of its users. As for the plugin's stability, I have yet to experience a problem after like 7-8 years of usage. I've upgraded from Calibre v4 to v5 before the plugin supported v5, but that's about it.
    - bmsleight_ 5y ago
      Appropriate any pointers, as I want to copy and paste from an book on the Kindle ended up camera photo to ocr. I am on Linux (Debian) and struggle to complete this task. Either I am not good a google or need to re-try.
- djbusby 5y ago
  You don't think that; publishers however think differently. If you think it's user-hostile, they think it's right way.
  - 5y ago

dheera 5y ago

Personally I use a Boox e-Ink tablet, which just runs Android. That means I can just install the Kindle app and read Kindle books without any fuss. I do hate DRM with a passion but sometimes I just want to get on with my day and this solution works for me. I really like the look of the Remarkable though, I just wish it ran Android.

gigglesupstairs 5y ago
How is it? Does it feel fast like iPad? Or at least responsive even if not that that fast? I have Paperwhite and while I still love it to death after 8 years, I just can’t live with the lag with traditional e-ink tablets like Paperwhite.
- sithadmin 5y ago
  Boox tablets seem to refresh faster than Kindle Paperwhites, but the appearance can be janky looking because Android isn't optimized for running on eInk. It takes some time to adjust to. This isn't a big problem for reading, but navigating through the general system UI and Android apps can be offputting.
- bigbillheck 5y ago
  You can tweak some of the refresh rate settings. My experience is it's a lot faster than a paperwhite (to the point that now when I use the kindle I wonder why it's so slow), but nowhere close to an ipad.
- dheera 5y ago
  No, it's super laggy just like all e-Ink devices, except for the natively-optimized note taking app which feels fine for writing and taking notes. Don't expect an iPad experience at all. The reasons I use it are - To get eye strain relief when reading ebooks, academic papers, or long PDF documents - To be able to read those things in bright sunlight while outdoors - Insanely good battery life compared to a traditional tablet, I only charge mine about once a week - Screen continues to display while consuming zero power, after device goes to sleep, which is useful for practicing music, and for placing reference documents on the table while I work on e.g. electronics, or recipes while working in the kitchen. I don't have to keep smacking it every 2 minutes to wake it up, and it won't run out of battery displaying a single PDF page for several days

marcus_holmes 5y ago

or https://z-lib.org/ https://z-lib.org/ if you're not too squeamish about copyright

19h 5y ago
or Library Genesis: https://libgen.is/ https://libgen.is/

filmgirlcw 5y ago

Well, even if you do that, the e-reader on the Remarkable is really, really poor. It’s a note taking device that can be hacked into doing some other stuff with varying degrees of success.

Yoric 5y ago

I'm not sure how they get there. I have a Kobo and ~100% of my hundreds of books are epub.

sohkamyung 5y ago

Liberture maintains a list of sites that sell DRM-free eBooks [1] [1] https://www.libreture.com/bookshops/ https://www.libreture.com/bookshops/

katabasis 5y ago

I own a Remarkable 2 and really love it, but I agree that the lack of some kind of integrated ebook marketplace is a missed opportunity. I would love to be able to just buy a bestselling book through the device (or it's accompanying app) and read it immediately. Is there anyone the company could partner with to enable such a feature? I don't want to pirate books or hassle with Calibre, I just want to read books on this very well-designed device and I'm willing to pay $$ to do that.

bubblethink 5y ago
That's not a missed opportunity. Not every company has to be some megacorp doing everything and siphoning off all data from every pore of the planet. Why can't you just make hardware and call it a day ?