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RM2 ex-pat club member here too! Beautiful design, bizarrely crippled user experience. They put a wifi+bt chip on the board, but didn't connect the bluetooth si

RM2 ex-pat club member here too! Beautiful design, bizarrely crippled user experience. They put a wifi+bt chip on the board, but didn't connect the bluetooth signals, so you couldn't use a bluetooth keyboard with it like any other tablet. And a zillion other frustrations. I sold it to a friend after making super sure he was okay with the limitations and wouldn't blame me for selling him a lemon.

jseliger 3y ago
I've written about this on HN before, but the RM2 people don't make the device show up as a standard USB device, which makes file manipulations hard. I think this is an effort to sell their "cloud" server stuff for a few dollars a month. That's not been the effect on me; instead, I barely use mine, and complain about it on the Internet.
- reckless 3y ago
  True but what you can do is SSH to the device and install a custom launcher for apps that can read standard epubs, play chess, or expose the linux terminal on device. Not great for basic users but I've had significantly more use out of it with some advanced setup.
- plagiarist 3y ago
  I always check for cloud server bullshit before a purchase. I lost all interest when proprietary cloud appeared to be the only thing set up for syncing.
- keerthiko 3y ago
  To make this simpler I made Regittable[0] for personal use. As only an occasional RM2 user (a weekend a month), I activate the python script on my desktop, pack my RM2 and go to a cafe, and when I'm back my files are all in Dropbox or in the project git repo, depending on if they're new or old respectively. I had plans to add more features to Regittable (like have it submit PRs instead of committing as you) but never needed them myself so didn't bother.
  - A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
    I will add as a user who dealt with it I will add that there is a ( paid ) solution that works well for my RM2[1]. It can be done on your own, but the amount of work made it worth the money Davis is asking. After that.. all of a sudden I started using it a lot more. http://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/ http://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/
- efitz 3y ago
  Attention all device manufacturers: I don’t want your f-ing cloud. When I buy a physical thing, having to keep paying you every month is a dealbreaker. I don’t care that you want a constant subscription revenue stream, buying a piece of hardware is about me, not you.
- overnight5349 3y ago
  They also don't support USB OTG on the main port, so you can't even use a wired keyboard. They only just recently released a keyboard case that uses the Pogo pins on the side, but it's $200!! There was an abandoned(?) attempt to enable OTG. The hardware supported acting as USB host, but couldn't supply 5v so you needed a powered hub as well as a wired keyboard. But, the software support for text input is absolutely horrendous. It inserts a text block into the center of the current page and you can't move it. Hell, until the 3.0 update, you couldn't even delete notebooks on the device. The RM2 is beautiful hardware that's about 90% developed with some truly awful software. Fortunately, you get root out of the box and the homebrew scene is active enough to give you most of the features that RM2 left out
  - chaosprint 3y ago
    all these designs prove that rm2 is the worst product I have ever seen
    - overnight5349 3y ago
      It's a pretty good product with some mediocre software. At the end of the day, it's extremely useful and usable for a lot of people doing a wide variety of tasks. The hardware has some issues, but I'd say it's like 90% there. The software features that work well are rather limited, but that's an intentional design decision. It has some limitations, but I consider it a rather good product.

jseliger 3y ago

I've written about this on HN before, but the RM2 people don't make the device show up as a standard USB device, which makes file manipulations hard. I think this is an effort to sell their "cloud" server stuff for a few dollars a month. That's not been the effect on me; instead, I barely use mine, and complain about it on the Internet.

reckless 3y ago
True but what you can do is SSH to the device and install a custom launcher for apps that can read standard epubs, play chess, or expose the linux terminal on device. Not great for basic users but I've had significantly more use out of it with some advanced setup.
plagiarist 3y ago
I always check for cloud server bullshit before a purchase. I lost all interest when proprietary cloud appeared to be the only thing set up for syncing.
keerthiko 3y ago
To make this simpler I made Regittable[0] for personal use. As only an occasional RM2 user (a weekend a month), I activate the python script on my desktop, pack my RM2 and go to a cafe, and when I'm back my files are all in Dropbox or in the project git repo, depending on if they're new or old respectively. I had plans to add more features to Regittable (like have it submit PRs instead of committing as you) but never needed them myself so didn't bother.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
  I will add as a user who dealt with it I will add that there is a ( paid ) solution that works well for my RM2[1]. It can be done on your own, but the amount of work made it worth the money Davis is asking. After that.. all of a sudden I started using it a lot more. http://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/ http://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/
efitz 3y ago
Attention all device manufacturers: I don’t want your f-ing cloud. When I buy a physical thing, having to keep paying you every month is a dealbreaker. I don’t care that you want a constant subscription revenue stream, buying a piece of hardware is about me, not you.
overnight5349 3y ago
They also don't support USB OTG on the main port, so you can't even use a wired keyboard. They only just recently released a keyboard case that uses the Pogo pins on the side, but it's $200!! There was an abandoned(?) attempt to enable OTG. The hardware supported acting as USB host, but couldn't supply 5v so you needed a powered hub as well as a wired keyboard. But, the software support for text input is absolutely horrendous. It inserts a text block into the center of the current page and you can't move it. Hell, until the 3.0 update, you couldn't even delete notebooks on the device. The RM2 is beautiful hardware that's about 90% developed with some truly awful software. Fortunately, you get root out of the box and the homebrew scene is active enough to give you most of the features that RM2 left out
- chaosprint 3y ago
  all these designs prove that rm2 is the worst product I have ever seen
  - overnight5349 3y ago
    It's a pretty good product with some mediocre software. At the end of the day, it's extremely useful and usable for a lot of people doing a wide variety of tasks. The hardware has some issues, but I'd say it's like 90% there. The software features that work well are rather limited, but that's an intentional design decision. It has some limitations, but I consider it a rather good product.