33 ms·

ReMarkable Paper Pro

• ABS 2y ago
  looks great and, at the same time, it seems they didn't address the single biggest problem I (and many, many, many other people) reported over the years :-( I even wrote about it here on HN in 2021 and nothing has really changed on that front. I have a Remarkable 2 and the device is great, software is improving as well and taking notes is a joy BUT finding those notes later on is next to impossible. OCR is very bad and basically makes indexing and full-text searching impossible (and off device) And no, "labels" do not address this problem.
  • crazygringo 2y ago
    It's funny, I would have thought that OCR on handwriting on a tablet would be great, because they can capture each individual stroke, rather than just the final pixelated product. In other words, because you're witnessing it being written, there's a lot more information. In fact I wouldn't even call it OCR because it's not "optical", but rather "stroke" -- SCR? Is that something that exists? Is that what the tablet tries to do and fails? Or is it only trying to OCR after-the-fact, in which case I'm not surprised it's terrible.
    • aDyslecticCrow 2y ago
      Apple newton did it. They required you to stroke your letters in a pedantically correct way because it used the stroke path, not the end pixel appearance, to detect letters.
      • alexey-salmin 2y ago
        I genuinely liked the Palm Graffiti. It took a couple of days of playing Giraffe to get used to it, but afterwards the speed and precision was quite decent. Of course it's nothing compared to modern swipe keyboards but still.
        • tracker1 2y ago
          Agreed, I often miss Palm's Graffiti input, I don't remember it well at all at this point I think I tried a similar input on android and went back to gesture keyboard. Of course, I kind of miss even developing for Palm as well, which was far simpler an experience than what Android and iOS are today. Then again, rose colored glasses and all.
      • bqmjjx0kac 2y ago
        So did palmOS "Graffiti" input. It was fun!
      • beAbU 2y ago
        I had a Sony-Erickson phone with a resistive touch screen and full keyboard and a stylus. Very futuristic for the aughts! They also forced writing letters in a very specific way, in order to trigger OCR.
      • WillAdams 2y ago
        That got a lot better w/ v2 of Rosetta (also known as Calligrapher). Recognition for me was about perfect, and I took notes on my Newton MessagePad using a 3rd party outliner in almost all of my college classes (art history was the exception --- used the main Newton app for that, along w/ little sketches and reference folios to the text which I then faxed to the fax machine in the Art Department's office for a student who had a learning disability which prevented his taking notes --- turns out that he then shared them with everyone in the dorms, which I found out about after the course was over when the professor noted how much better everyone's grades were that year and how she had found out when asking other students.
    • ABS 2y ago
      there is no OCR on device fullstop, which in itself would be fine if it happened async in the background. You can use the OCR feature only in the companion desktop app, explicitly selecting pages you want to run the process on. The result is better than it used to be but still not great and, importantly, it does NOT seem they make any difference if you later on do a search on the device
      • tecleandor 2y ago
        Well, you can do OCR while using the device but... it's not on device. The device has to be connected to the Internet for OCR to work. I've never checked where does it connect to do it, as I never use it...
        • ABS 2y ago
          but the result is not subsequently used for full text indexing and searching (on device or on desktop) therefore it's useless
          • tecleandor 2y ago
            Yep, totally.
      • mmikeff 2y ago
        This is the biggest issue for me as well. Seems that the OCR has to be triggered manually, for each page of each notebook. Which of course I don't remember to do and now there are too many. The search doesn't appear to search across notebooks either. The experience that I would want (expect) is that OCR happens in the background, all the time, no need to trigger and that I can then search for a word/string and find all the notes on that topic. I've fallen back to tags and dates in filenames to have any chance of tracking down old meeting notes.
    • estensen 2y ago
      In research this is called Online Handwriting Recognition reMarkable does Online Handwriting Recognition with MyScript running in the cloud, not on the tablet https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2 https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2
    • staticman2 2y ago
      In the old Palm Pilot days the way the OCR worked is you had to do the strokes in a special software approved manner, your natural stroke motion wasn't acceptable, you were expected to learn to write in a special shorthand system called Graffiti. I'd imagine going by stroke order would be a bit tricky since a lot of people don't write the way their teachers taught them to write. (Think anybody with bad handwriting).
  • blakeburch 2y ago
    Yeah... New product looks fantastic, but finding your notes will still be a pain. You have to be diligently organized with folders and notebooks to find anything.
  • tecleandor 2y ago
    Seems like they've improved the processor (at least the latency is lower) and that might help to add new features or improve pdf responsiveness, but they're still lacking on the software side, and even simple QOL features like the ones that rmhacks adds aren't available by default. I feel like it falls short on the reading side (not searching, dictionary, note management...), and short on the notes side (simple drawing tools, no dashed lines, no shapes, and I think you can't even position text on the wherever you like on the page). I really liked the initial hackability, as you have SSH access to the Linux inside the device, and people was building software to run on it, but seems like due to some changes since v3.4 of the firmware, it's either very difficult (or not possible) to do it, and the ideas I had for using it aren't feasible right now. The price for the color model is (at least in Europe) already higher than a Boox Note Air3C, that's a full fledged Android tablet. Of course, the battery won't last as long even with all the optimizations, but is a bit lighter, has more resolution, and you can put whatever software you like that runs in Android. I haven't tested the software, though... TLDR: not sure about this :(
  • regularfry 2y ago
    I'm absolutely fine without OCR and searching if they can give us working links. All I want to do is to be able to doodle a star on a page, or a word, and have that work as a link off to another page in another notebook. That's all you need for a zettelkasten-style system to hold your notes in but I've not seen anyone do it.
    • joshjob42 2y ago
      Supernote has links, as does Boox. There is a specific Star based system for Supernote but I never quite got the hang of that, but I use the linking features extensively to link to pages of PDFs for more extended notes about them, and to serve as a sort of directory / tree structure for notes and subjects. I keep my notes structure fairly flat for that reason, there aren’t many folders. I’d’ve shelled out $800 first thing this morning for an RM Pro if they added linking across the system.
  • tr3ntg 2y ago
    Agreed. I got the RM2 because I thought it’d be “a notebook I can search.” No. I regret every piece of writing that has ended up locked up inside that device vs on paper notebooks. It’s like an anti-discovery device.
  • visarga 2y ago
    I was hoping rM3 will be about improved OCR, and ideally a GPT chat app with integrated pen - just use GPT4v or something. Their AI integrations are shit.
• foul 2y ago
  Will it be ssh-accessible like the other Remarkables? It's a really cool device, and costs (in EU) less than the DC1.
  • diggan 2y ago
    I'm a Remarkable 2 owner and yeah, this is a "make or break" feature to even start considering a potential upgrading, but found nothing online about if the Pro version has this or not.
• rtpg 2y ago
  If you have an iPad already you can get screen covers that give your screen a paper feel. Elecom sells them
  • a1o 2y ago
    Uhm, like this one https://www.amazon.com/ELECOM-Pencil-Feel-Compatible-Scratch-Resistant-TB-A20MFLAPNH/dp/B08MVNFQ1Z/ https://www.amazon.com/ELECOM-Pencil-Feel-Compatible-Scratch... ?
  • krastanov 2y ago
    That is frequently enough, but for a lot of folks who are fans of Remarkable, the preference is based on one or more of these three: (1) e-ink for both paper-like visual texture (the pixels are not square) and eye comfort (impossible with traditional screens) (2) single-purpose note-taking without distractions (although some hate that) (3) paperlike haptic feel (the only thing that can be addressed by screen cover on an ipad)
    • Someone 2y ago
      > single-purpose note-taking without distractions (although some hate that) You can get very close to that by locking your iPad down and setting it in kiosk mode. If you use Apple Configurator, you can even have it boot into a single app. See https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-configurator-mac/cadbf9c172/mac https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-configurator-mac...
      • sam29681749 2y ago
        Good to know. Is there a single app that's suitable as both a notebook and reading/annotating pdfs? And would restricting the device to one app affect your ability to transfer files to the device over iTunes?
    • orbital-decay 2y ago
      I find (1) to be the biggest snake oil of electrophoretic displays. The only case where it's remotely true is direct sunlight. In normal indoor lighting conditions they severely lack contrast/whiteness/blackness compared to a good screen or printed book, and are hugely dependent on proper lighting, for example your hand will give it shadow so you're practically forced to use the frontlight if your device has it (reMarkable doesn't), as it's almost impossible to light evenly and match the background otherwise. In other words, when reading indoors they have all downsides of paper with none of the upsides. It just doesn't work as "paper replacement", it's strictly inferior, and feels like a downgrade compared to modern active displays. (3) is mostly matter of choice, and it's a feel of matte plastic, very far from actual paper. (2) is the only reason I'm using it. It's thin (although not as thin as a piece of paper) and single-purpose, a physical product.
• ducktective 2y ago
  Is this suitable for reading technical pdf textbooks (math, programming, etc)? Last I checked the screen size was smaller than A4 and ReMarkable had a focus on writing and taking notes rather than displaying books... So any suggestions here?
  • j-pb 2y ago
    Remarkable is very open source friendly and you can ssh into it from the get go. I'm really looking forward to installing Zed on this thing!
  • teebs 2y ago
    I've mostly used it for reading textbooks or academic papers (and taking notes on them) and it works fine for me. It can be a little small but you can zoom in if you need
  • krastanov 2y ago
    I read arxiv content on the Remarkable 2 and I am satisfied. The reader auto-removes the white margins, so the smaller screen is not a problem. The zoom functionality is snappy for an e-ink device from 3 years ago (slow by modern standards). The quick-view thumbnails used to scroll through far-away pages is sufficient for my workflow. Generally I am very happy with the device for consuming static academic PDFs.
  • lokimedes 2y ago
    That is the only thing I use mine for these days. Screen size is fine for that. I miss an API to their cloud storage. It is simply a dealbreaker that it aims to help avoiding distractions but leaves no room for building an automated workflow around it.
  • demarq 2y ago
    From experience,reading the screen size is not a problem at all. But writing is where you notice how small the screen really is. It’s down to the size difference between printed text and handwriting.
  • bryanrasmussen 2y ago
• itomato 2y ago
  This video shows an interactive demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uyh6KSYVJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uyh6KSYVJ4 I'm particularly interested in refresh latency and color gamut. You can get a feel for these here.
  • panosfilianos 2y ago
    I wonder why the folios put the display to sleep. Afaik, e-ink screens don't use any energy to display, but only to refresh.
• heyflyguy 2y ago
  I love my Remarkable, it forces me to stay in creativity mode without jumping to the internet since it doesn't have a browser. That being said, the inability to simply put your own templates in the machine and have them persist through and update is so close to being a showstopper for me that I am not sure I would consider buying a new one. The RM2 template manager is great, but you have to update your templates after every firmware update and I hate that with a passion!
  • pcl 2y ago
    I have scripted this (well, installation of some systemd units, but the workflow is the same). So I just plug my tablet into my laptop and run my script every time it updates. It’s not ideal, but not super tedious either. I’ve been planning to start charging via a raspberry pi so that the pi can automatically tend to the device whenever it’s connected, but haven’t gotten there yet.
    • tjoff 2y ago
      Why not script it over ssh (wifi), preference or is not as simple as I imagine? (never used one but the ability to get shell and be able to rsync files is one of the reasons I consider a remarkable). I could be misinformed though, haven't researched it a lot.
      • pcl 2y ago
        Firmware updates blow away any customizations. So you need to bootstrap things again after each update. Updates can be deferred, so the process isn’t too disruptive. Edit: oh, yeah I see what you’re getting at. That direction could work, and I used to do that years ago, as it turns out, but these days I am frequently not on a familiar WiFi network when I’m using the tablet, so cabling has been more practical.
        • tjoff 2y ago
          Ah, if I'm on the go I think I'd hotspot on my phone and sync via termux, but that is great to hear!
• mouse_ 2y ago
  Not that trash Kaleido faux-color e-ink, very nice. This may be the first legitimate color e-ink tablet with good (EMR; see: S-Pen, Wacom, old style Thinkpad) pen input.
  • FeistySkink 2y ago
    According to the video [0], the pen needs to be charged and I thought EMR pens don't. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uyh6KSYVJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uyh6KSYVJ4
    • WillAdams 2y ago
      Probably it's Wacom AES, or NTrig, or maybe some other technology (whatever happened to Finepoint?) Perhaps something from the Universal Stylus Initiative? https://universalstylus.org/ https://universalstylus.org/
    • diffeomorphism 2y ago
      There are quite a few samsung pens, which can be but don't need to be charged. That is, the writing works without charging but "air gestures" etc. additionally work via bluetooth or something and do need additional charging. That said, due to the fact that it does have an eraser, I would still guess that it is EMR but probably with a softer tip (e.g., the galaxy folds had special pens; other emr pens are "compatible", but might damage the crease, so they are not officially compatible).
• zapatistan 2y ago
  I recently by remarkable 2 it is a good product. I wish I've waited a bit to get this one.
  • mariusor 2y ago
    I suspect they'll honor their 100 days return policy if you ask them.
• layer8 2y ago
  This uses the E Ink Gallery 3 display, of which you can find many reviews online.
  • jsheard 2y ago
    E-Inks official specs list the color refresh time as 0.5ms in fast mode, 1 second in standard mode or 1.5 seconds in quality mode. That sounds like it could get annoying when reading full color content (e.g. comics). At least it's an improvement from Gallery 2 which took 10 seconds to refresh in color mode, no wonder hardly anything ever used that generation...
    • konradb 2y ago
      The main issue I had with my Remarkable 1 was that I couldn't quickly scroll through pages of e-books. If I was looking for something specific in the pages, an ipad allows me to swipe across rapidly. Remarkable was this tedious repeated button press, waiting each time for the screen to refresh. Had to go back to ipad although I loved the device.
      • paulcole 2y ago
        Which e-ink devices have had fast enough page scrolling for you?
        • lidavidm 2y ago
          Kobo lets you tap and hold a corner (or hold down the page turn button), and after a second it'll start fast-flipping through pages. Not as fast as an iPad but pretty quick, sorta like flipping through a book at a moderate pace.
        • AlanYx 2y ago
          Both Kobo and Kindle devices allow you to fast scroll page thumbnails, which helps work around the refresh limitations of e-ink. Something like that is still missing from RM's software. You basically have to switch to multi-page view and then scroll that if you want to go quickly through a document.
• orliesaurus 2y ago
  can I read mangas with this?
  • lidavidm 2y ago
    I posted some other comments in this thread - unless they've significantly improved the software in the past year I would 100% recommend against it. (Also, a lot of manga gets distributed through proprietary apps now so an iPad is probably your best bet anyways, at least if you read the serialized version and not the tankoubon releases...)
    • Ancapistani 2y ago
      The eReader functionality is... poor but usable. EPUB rendering is slow the first time you open it, and notes and highlights get lost when you change text size. On the other hand, PDF rendering is excellent. I make it a point to buy PDF versions of ebooks and have had no issues using it like that.
• artdigital 2y ago
  129,800 JPY to get one to Japan, vs $749 USD in the US. So just by paying in JPY, I am paying $895.10, so $146.10 more. What gives? That's VERY expensive
  • tallanvor 2y ago
    10% VAT covers half of it. Possibly tariffs are responsible for some of it, or the difference could be due to strength differences of JPY, USD, and NOK since it's a Norwegian company.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • The_Colonel 2y ago
    USD prices usually don't include sales tax. Not sure how it is with JPY, but EUR prices usually do include VAT.
  • SamInTheShell 2y ago
    Wonder how much of that is due to local taxes or perhaps tariffs. Pricing cross currency is more than just an exchange rate calculation.
• jks 2y ago
  Would be interesting to hear from someone who has compared this and https://daylightcomputer.com/ https://daylightcomputer.com/
  • layer8 2y ago
    DC has even worse contrast than e-ink.
    • Rinzler89 2y ago
      [flagged]
      • layer8 2y ago
        E-ink contrast is something like 1:15, it's pretty bad.
        • Rinzler89 2y ago
          *) in the realm of electrophoretic displays or with strong ambient light, not compared to some 2000 nit OLED in the dark
          • layer8 2y ago
            My reference point is physical paper.
            • Rinzler89 2y ago
              You think e-ink has worst contrast than physical paper? How so?
              • layer8 2y ago
                I hold them side by side.
            • 2y ago
• vermaat 2y ago
  Wish I could also use this as external MacBook usb-c monitor so I can code during the day.
  • sofixa 2y ago
    There are two options for that: * Onyx Boox Mira and Mira Pro: https://shop.boox.com/products/mira https://shop.boox.com/products/mira * Dasung Paperlike Monitors: https://shop.dasung.com/ https://shop.dasung.com/ Between them you can pick between multiple sizes and specs. I haven't tried either, but I have a number of Onyx Boox devices (a Palma phone sized one, and Nova Air small tablet sized one) and I'm very happy with their quality.
    • diffeomorphism 2y ago
      The devices seem nice, but their piracy makes me hesitant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onyx_Boox#GPL_compliance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onyx_Boox#GPL_compliance
  • orlandohill 2y ago
    I've been happy with my 13.3" Dasung Paperlike HD-FT. I can imagine eventually getting a larger color e-ink monitor for office work, and a smaller one for travel.
• layer8 2y ago
  I'm still waiting for e-ink displays that actually have inky blacks.
• Pr0ject217 2y ago
  Can it be used completely offline, without an account, etc?
  • ebcode 2y ago
    good question. they have a good product, but it seems like their marketing folks haven't figured out selling to engineers/geeks
• rvz 2y ago
  Well exactly as expected a colour e-Ink version of Remarkable and a much larger internal storage (64GB) instead of the very low 8GB non-upgradeable storage. Given it now has Colour e-ink as I said before [0], I will buy one right now. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24295884 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24295884
• ilynd 2y ago
  Looks nice to use to write a note, but horrible to use to store/access existing notes. The file browser should recognise the low refresh rate and use something like column view in Finder, rather than a new window when going 'into' a folder.
• paxys 2y ago
  Looks neat, but not being able to do something as simple as backup and sync without a monthly subscription makes this whole ecosystem a no go for me. Especially for a device that already costs $600-800.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • mtrovo 2y ago
    Did they announce they're locking this new device? I have a remarkable 2 and it's basically a stripped down version of Linux that you can SSH in and install whatever you want on it.
    • Rinzler89 2y ago
      This feels like something some Chinese company can put out at much cheaper price, just a barebones large e-ink tablet, for hackers and tinkerers, with some linux distro with touch support, unlocked bootloader and ssh, powered by a microcontroller with mainline linux support, no fancy apps, no cloud service and no subscription, where they just supply the HW and the community on GitHub builds the SW for it, a-la RPi.
      • plagiarist 2y ago
        I wish they would. Currently I think at best they're all running a custom Android OS, though.
        • lidavidm 2y ago
          Could consider a Kobo Elipsa. (I have a different Kobo device.) It runs some sort of Linux and you can install Koreader and a couple of other things. You can tweak a config file and set up the device without an account. Not sure how the writing experience compares to reMarkable, though (probably not favorably).
      • antimoney 2y ago
• WillAdams 2y ago
  How much does the "Connect Subscription" cost? How well does the machine work w/o it? When will someone else make a device with this display? (I'm looking at you Amazon) Could we get this display in a larger size on a general-purpose tablet w/ stylus? (I still haven't found a replacement for my Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4110 and its daylight viewable transflective display) A smaller size for a cell phone? (with a stylus please) How about a dual-screen device like to the Lenovo Yogabook which had an e-ink display for the lower half which would toggle between keyboard and other uses?
  • mgkimsal 2y ago
    I'm paying $2.99/month. Got mine last year, and used it, then didn't, and started again earlier this year - was using it daily for about 4-5 months. My daily routines changed and I've not used it as much, but will be picking it up again shortly. Was more for daily journaling and planning, but not as much 'in the workday' use. I think $29/year is an annual plan (looks like a new offering) - I may switch to that. A feature I was using some is the 'desktop connect' thing - drawing on it is synced to the desktop app pretty much live (<1s delay, ime). Doing a screen share and letting people watch me draw using it has been useful, but not something I need a lot. But... considering some of the discussions I've been having lately, perhaps I do need it more. Trying to get data relationship concepts across to people seems to do better with pictures for some folks. EDIT: Works fine without it and paid account. I think you even get a small amount of 'sync' data for free if you create an account (5meg or something?). I seem to remember I still had some stuff synced between desktop and device even before paying. I used it for months just as a standalone device with no issues. The OCR stuff does send the data out to the cloud, and my experience is it's not that great, but my penmanship stinks, so it's more me than it.
• paulcole 2y ago
  I ordered mine and am very excited for it. I use it everyday at work (handwritten notes and reviewing short PDFs like resumes and white papers). It’s one of the biggest professional ROI investments that I’ve ever made. The people who hate the Remarkable seem to be either zealots for openness or people who want to read ebooks on it or people who hate subscriptions. Those 3 things don’t matter to me at all so I’ve been extremely happy.
  • hiq 2y ago
    What line of work are you in?
    • paulcole 2y ago
      Director-level role at a 30-person marketing agency. Not a programming job but I do a few hours of coding a week for work — generally building internal tools to improve processes.
• lidavidm 2y ago
  I had a reMarkable 2 and gave up it almost solely because it didn't support USB mass storage (like Kobo devices do), making it really annoying to transfer files. Also, their software update made the reader worse, since I went from being able to manually crop the page to fit the viewport to having to carefully pinch-zoom with a bunch of latency and really weird sensitivity. And they seem oddly insistent they're not a reading device anyways; if they supported ePub 3 (particularly ePub 3 fixed layout - again, Kobo supports this) that would have made it a nice comics machine, but no. (And their weird web interface choked if you tried to transfer "large" books.) 100K JPY too, which is in the range of an iPad Air. I hope some of these software issues get ironed out and maybe I'll consider it again...
  • elric 2y ago
    Similar experiences with the reMarkable 1. The USB interface really bugs me. It's nice for annotating and highlighting PDFs, but pretty bad for reading. Great for taking notes, but awful at extracting them, unless you get an expensive subscription to their "cloud" garbage, which feels extortionate considering how expensive the device is.
  • _ph_ 2y ago
    You can ssh into the remarkable and copy files via scp.
    • lidavidm 2y ago
      Yeah. Still way more effort than Kobo: plug it in, drag and drop.
      • chickenimprint 2y ago
        I've switched to exclusively using SSH on my Kobo, because I find it less effortful. The connection procedure consists of enabling wifi on the Kobo and clicking on the sftp bookmark in my file browser.
        • 2y ago
• rcarr 2y ago
  Feels ridiculous that we've had Kindles since 2007 but we've still got no A4-sized Colour E-Ink Tablet in 2024.
  • nihzm 2y ago
    Sony made one a while back but I've never tried it, and it's as expensive as the remarkable if not more. https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/design/stories/DPT-RP1/ https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/design/stories/DPT-RP1/ https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/sony-digital-paper-dpt-rp1-review https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/sony-digital...
    • AlanYx 2y ago
      The DPT-RP1 line was acquired by Fujitsu and is now sold at the Quaderno. The hardware has been updated a bit in the Quaderno Gen 2, including a Wacom digitizer. They're still great devices, and the same open source software for the DPT-RP1 (dpt-rp1-py) works with both Quadernos.
      • ctippett 2y ago
        It's been awhile since I've looked into it, but are you sure the open source software is compatible with the latest Quaderno's? I've been following this issue[1] on GitHub that seems to suggest people are still holding out for a solution. [1] https://github.com/HappyZ/dpt-tools/issues/181 https://github.com/HappyZ/dpt-tools/issues/181
        • AlanYx 2y ago
          You're linking to dpt-tools. I've never tried that software. I have a Quaderno Gen 2 and personally use dpt-rp1-py (https://github.com/janten/dpt-rp1-py https://github.com/janten/dpt-rp1-py), so I can confirm that at least it works. (When I first set it up, I had to run the "dptrp1 register" command twice because I got an error message the first time, but that hasn't come up again -- you only have to register it once on a given computer.)
• gizmo 2y ago
  What does the ReMarkable really excel at? You can make notes, but the software is not that great from what I've seen. It doesn't have end-to-end encryption so I wouldn't use it for anything important. You can read PDFs but typing notes is much faster on a desktop/laptop, and for nontechnical books a kindle is much better form factor. You can use it to draw, but e-ink is inferior to a wacom tablet or iPad pro. e-ink is great in bright environments, but in most places where people work that's just not an issue. And who is going to use their ReMarkable at the beach? It's a cool product but I don't get it. I don't get who needs this.
  • Almondsetat 2y ago
    If your notes are the kind that are written faster with a keyboard, you are not the target audience
  • diggan 2y ago
    > What does the ReMarkable really excel at? Writing notes with a pencil. I think they make this pretty clear. Anything outside of that is either a bonus or out of scope for the device. > It doesn't have end-to-end encryption so I wouldn't use it for anything important Don't use the cloud sync and instead manually sync things between your own hardware, encrypt at rest if you feel like it. > e-ink is great in bright environments [...] And who is going to use their ReMarkable at the beach? Living in a country with lots of sunlight and as a person who sometimes visits the beach, this is exactly what I want. One of the main variables I look at when I buy laptops is "How well can I read from the display when I'm in sunlight?", I'm sure I cannot be the only one who likes to sit outside with my computer, or have windows that let in sunlight.
    • gizmo 2y ago
      I don’t think anybody gets real work done at the beach, and if you like to work outside you can use a laptop in the shade without issues. And if I have to sync my notes manually it’s easier to use pen and paper and snap a picture afterwards. The use-cases for this tablet seem contrived to me.
• xur17 2y ago
  Anyone that has one of these - does it work with Linux? From Googling it looks like at best it works via wine, but even that is questionable with the latest version. Pretty ready to buy, but this is a pretty big turn off.
  • _ph_ 2y ago
    The remarkable2 works well with Linux in the respect that the remarkable itself runs Linux and you can just ssh into it.
  • rsolva 2y ago
    I can access my RM2 with SSH via WiFi or USB-C, if that's what you mean. But the official reMarkable client is not available for Linux, which I find a bit odd, since it is a Qt-app and the founder of the company apparently is an avid linux user. I have got it working via Wine, but it keeps breaking after updates. I do not use it often though, as I mostly just upload new files via the website.
    • nihzm 2y ago
      > But the official reMarkable client is not available for Linux, which I find a bit odd, since it is a Qt-app and the founder of the company apparently is an avid linux user. If I had to guess it's probably because they want to keep it closed-source and that is a nightmare with linux distro packaging. I have also used the tables via the webapp like you for many years.
      • rsolva 2y ago
        These days they could package it as a Flatpak and cover a lot of distros with out a lot of duplicate work. I mostly use Flatpak for those types of apps these days.
• solarkraft 2y ago
  This is actually ... remarkable in that it uses color particles. From what I know most color E-Ink displays on the market today have b/w particles and a color LCD on top.
  • xd1936 2y ago
    https://www.eink.com/brand/detail/Gallery_3 https://www.eink.com/brand/detail/Gallery_3
  • Qwertious 2y ago
    >From what I know most color E-Ink displays on the market today have b/w particles and a color LCD on top. It's not an LCD on top, it's just a static stained-glass checkerboard pattern.
• loughnane 2y ago
  I've been a remarkable user for several years and have spent hundreds of hours I'm sure in front of the RM1 and RM2. I love the increased storage (8GB goes fast with a bunch of scanned PDFs) and the addition of color (so long as it's as readable in sunlight). However I'm stuck on the old 2.x fw versions because I don't like the infinite page thing they added, so I won't be upgrading. Also it'd be cool if they offered proper support for self-hosting rather than forcing us to use tools like rmfakecloud (which is great btw).
  • breck 2y ago
    I haven't looked at the software stack in a while. Has RM gone more open source yet? I didn't like how they were pivoting to toward the SaaS subscription thing. I'd much rather pay a little more up front for a fully open device then cheaper upfront but with an annoying subscription plus closed source.
    • loughnane 2y ago
      I think they’re the same as ever…not as good as I’d like but miles ahead of anyone else. It’ll be neat to see if this device is more or less locked down. I hope less.
    • zehaeva 2y ago
      The RM runs on linux and they hand you the admin password. I'm not sure how much more open you can get. Just SSH into the device and then use one of the 3rd party stacks for syncing.
      • breck 2y ago
        No I get it and loved the RM open source community. I was involved with that a few years ago. At the time the SaaS stuff was new and I personally thought they should have gone the other way and doubled down on a fully open stack, but then I kind of moved on to other things and haven't kept up with what has happened since, and whether they were doubling down on closed source/SaaS or the opposite.
• kotaKat 2y ago
  Loving the dark pattern that it "starts at $579" and then the 'buy now' page tries to default you to adding on additional options that bump that up to over $700...
  • danbruc 2y ago
    Two big buttons to choose one of the folios and a small radio button below for no folio. And the Type Folio is + 249 € but also Save up to 49 € with bundle, so it actually "only" costs 200 €. Why would you even do this, make it appear more expensive then it is and on top of that confuse me, is selecting a folio already the bundle or can I somewhere buy a bundle that saves 49 € instead?
  • jonahbenton 2y ago
    A big issue is that it requires a new pen. The earlier pens are not compatible. I use a 3rd party pen with the RM2, much better ergonomics, but not clear what now will work.
    • WillAdams 2y ago
      That is a big disappointment --- for a while it looked as if everyone would standardize on the new generation of Wacom EMR (w/ 4096 pressure levels) so that a Staedtler Noris Digital or Lamy Wacom EMR stylus works w/ a wide variety of devices --- I use them on: - Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ - Kindle Scribe - Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 - Wacom One (attached to my MacBook) and I couldn't count the number of styluses I have floating around my home/office.
      • DennisAleynikov 2y ago
        Super weird, we use the Lamy pen on the Daylight Computer and it's the best thing ever
    • echelon 2y ago
      The new pen looks to be battery powered, whereas the old one didn't require a charge. They might be doing something fancy for better writing and gesture detection.
• vimsee 2y ago
  I want to challenge the idea that drawing/writing on what feels like paper is subpar compared to a surface that have the pencil glide a bit more. I always thought writing on paper is something we have to deal with because paper is.. well, the physical medium we always used because it is cheap to manufacture.
  • diggan 2y ago
    I guess it's a bit like putting lemon on fish, in the beginning we did so for a purpose but after a while people just got used to it and now it's a established thing. Similarly, we're so used to feeling at least a tiny bit of resistance when writing that when it isn't there, things feels "greasy" or unnatural. I personally agree with that it feels nicer with a bit of contrast compared to sliding around. Drawing on a Wacom tablet gives me a lot better results than drawing on an iPad, even when I get to see the lines where I draw it with an iPad and with the Wacom that drawing appears on the monitor instead at on the tablet.
    • vimsee 2y ago
      Yeah, the fish analogy makes sense. I have a Wacom tablet myself and I do think it is nice to draw on, but I wonder if the surface can be improved. Would love to try possible alternatives.
  • WillAdams 2y ago
    This can be adjusted for based on different nibs (and/or screen protector) --- a number of different ones are available and they are easily changed.
  • regularfry 2y ago
    I got annoyed with how quickly I was going through Remarkable nibs, so I bought myself a third party titanium replacement. It is very slick in comparison. With the replacement I get wrist strain. With the originals I don't.
  • diffeomorphism 2y ago
    Higher quality, fountain pen-friendly paper tends to be smoother than regular paper (e.g, clairefontaine, tomoe river, japanese paper in general) yet still much less slippery than a glass surface. How slippery/grippy you want things to be depends on the type of pen you use (gel, ink, pencil, brush,etc.) and to some extent also preference, but people generally agree that there are cases which work just badly: very slippery (e.g. glass) and much too rough (e.g. sand paper).
• pydubreucq 2y ago
  Really interesting ! I have the old version and I've often thought it would be much better with colors.
• lawlorino 2y ago
  I noticed when reading through user reviews for the remarkable 2 that I can find several that are pretty critical of the product, but the rating of the reviewer is apparently 5 stars. https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2#user-reviews https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2#user-reviews
  • OnionBlender 2y ago
    Probably for visibility. It looks like only 5 star reviews get shown unless you specifically filter for fewer stars.
• _ph_ 2y ago
  A highly interesting release. I love my remarkable2 as a note-taking device. I also own a Kindle and an iPad, so reading books or running apps isn't my requirement. I only need something to take notes and that the remarkable does very well. Funny though, that color wasn't the most missing feature. But it is very intriguing that it seems to have the first full-resolution color displays, with the color being part of the eInk pixels. From a practical side, the additional screen space probably is the biggest feature to me. I would hope for some more software improvements, like a few more drawing tools, especially as the colors make that even more appealing. Also, I would like to have an image slide show and of course an official option to customize the sleeping/off display images.
• surfingdino 2y ago
  I did try to like e-ink tablets, but I'm afraid they just can't match an iPad or a decent Android tablet.
  • WillAdams 2y ago
    Horses for courses. Use an e-ink tablet if you want: - long battery life - paper-like writing experience - high resolution (for b/w) - an alternative to paper for books and notes That said, there are devices which are essentially Android tablets w/ e-ink screens, which aside from refresh rates work much as one would expect.
• laserbeam 2y ago
  I love my remarkable 2. Bought it before "Connect" was a thing, so I don't have a subscription. But I cannot recommend it to anyone. There are better alternatives out there and MyDeepGuide (youtube) has reviewed them all better than I ever could. The software is moving too slowly and often in a wrong direction. Especially since they released the keyboard folio most updates were around typing (which is supar on any eink device)... and they generally made my experience as a pen user worse. I don't care if the new hardware is awesome, whenever mine breaks I will switch to a competitor. EDIT: the reviewer I mention is excited about the device https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkEg8WLeW4Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkEg8WLeW4Q
  • RyeCombinator 2y ago
    Supernote is a good choice!
  • xrd 2y ago
    I excitedly went to that channel. I'm overwhelmed! Can you tell me the top three devices he recommends so I can review those videos? Man, he makes a lot of stuff!
    • funksta 2y ago
      I believe he has said the Supernote A5X is his favourite. There's a newer A5X2 coming out later this year to update it (though it has repeatedly been delayed)
      • widowlark 2y ago
        The A6X2 is great as well, and fits a surprisingly small niche for smaller writing devices. I would also love a device that is the size of a pocket notepad someday
      • NoahKAndrews 2y ago
        I like my A5X
• daft_pink 2y ago
  I own a kindle, but I find it’s often just easier and better to use my iPad Pro and the upside of having a fully functional device outweighs the fancy display tech. I think it’s important to consider if eink so great that it justifies such an expensive device over a more conventional tablet. Although, I do kind of want one.
  • LegitShady 2y ago
    i have a kindle. I use it for reading books. Its only function (to me) is reading books. I have an ipad pro (2018). It's functions are 1) watching youtube 2) drawing/painting on procreate and 3) using some music apps like AUM and various synths 4) acting a kitchen display for recipes and 5) general note taking if I need to take notes that involve drawing or diagrams. I have a phone. I read on my phone because its the device I have with me most. I look at this Remarkable and 1) It's much more money than either my kindle or even my phone cost. 2) I can't install the kindle app on it, for it to replace my kindle 3) It's not small or convenient enough to replace the kindle or phone 4) It's not good enough for drawing to replace the ipad 5) I don't understand why it doesn't interoperate with a lot of existing stuff. If I want to use my wifi to backup the remarkable to my onedrive, it doesn't sound like that's possible, which is possible on my phone and ipad, and isn't necessary on kindle since everything is already dealt with by amazon whispersync. Not for me either.
    • ericd 2y ago
      It’s for taking notes, and you can put other formats of ebooks on it (and pdfs). It’s much better than a kindle for reading technical papers and textbooks. And I find that it’s really good for not getting distracted, and getting into deep work mode.
      • LegitShady 2y ago
        its very expensive as just a device for taking notes. I suppose using its limited abilities and rephrasing that as "not getting distracted" is an interesting marketing tactic but I prefer to hold my own self control instead of just buying worse but more expensive products.
• shove 2y ago
  Love my Remarkable 2. Give us an SDK!
• bekantan 2y ago
  A “productivity hack” for folks who can’t afford this and already own iPad+Pencil which they primarily use indoors: switch to grayscale mode, it is awesome :)
• create-username 2y ago
  lack of USB-C thunderbolt to screen sharing while battery charging is a deal killer for me
  • Ancapistani 2y ago
    The rM2 at least allows you to screenshare wirelessly, which of course can be done while charging. I expect this one will be the same in that respect. The rM2 also "just runs linux" under the hood. I bet you could write a utility to screenshare over USB if you really wanted to.
    • create-username 2y ago
      Wirelessly using a pc connected to the screen. Which means I need a laptop as well.
      • Ancapistani 2y ago
        Oh, you meant in-person sharing. That's a use case I hadn't considered - I've not worked in an office in over a decade. To my knowledge there's no quick solution there. It sounds like maybe this just isn't the device for you.
    • Qwertious 2y ago
      >I bet you could write a utility to screenshare over USB if you really wanted to. The display buffer is proprietary and requires DMA (and breaks with every software update), so while you technically can, it won't be easy.
• fumar 2y ago
  It has 229 pixels per inch based on the E in Gallery 3 display. On E ink’s site, the Gallery 3 product specs says support is up to 300 ppi. Remarkable should’ve gone with the higher resolution.
  • thimabi 2y ago
    I concur. For a device of that price, size, and considering the reading and note-taking use case, only 229 ppi is abysmal. Why cut corners in a key part of the product?
    • noname120 2y ago
      E Ink has a monopoly on microcapsule displays and the prices are incredibly high. The device would be much more expensive if they used the high-density display. As an example the E Ink Kaleido 3 screen part (only the screen!) costs $449[1] per piece: https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/13.3''Kaleido3ePaperDisplay https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/13.3''Kaleido3eP...
      • Qwertious 2y ago
        >E Ink has a monopoly on microcapsule displays and the prices are incredibly high This is either horseshit or very sneakily worded. GoodDisplay sells their DES screens which are also electrophoretic screens, with the only difference being that they use cofferdam tech that directly builds microcapsules onto the underlying substrate, rather than being separately produced and sprinkled on. >As an example, $449 How is that an example? If you're comparing it to LCD please say so explicitly. LCDs are produced at a rate of billions per quarter, whereas electrophoretic screens are a niche tech used in ereaders and not much else. It wouldn't surprise me if LCDs had 1000x the production, you don't need a monopoly to explain LCDs being cheaper here. It's just raw economy of scale.
        • noname120 2y ago
          > This is either horseshit or very sneakily worded This comment infringes on HN guidelines. I'd recommend editing it accordingly and remove the accusatory tone. > with the only difference being that they use cofferdam tech No. Cofferdam's 11.6" B&W screen is less than 100 dpi (adjusted to 11.8") and cannot reasonably be considered a viable alternative for reading and note-taking. > How is that an example? It explains why the “for a device of that price” argument is not relevant here. The screen itself is very expensive and the profit margin of ReMarkable is not as stellar as some people would believe.
• Workaccount2 2y ago
  I cannot support a piece of hardware that is purposely soft crippled in order to push you into a subscription. Think you can plug this into your PC to drag and drop files like external storage? Nope.
• regularfry 2y ago
  The things I don't like about my rm2 are: - how fast the nibs wear out - how inaccurate the screen is - the screen update rate - infinite pages It sounds like they might have fixed the nibs. The rest of it is up in the air. I think infinite pages might be workable if the update rate is better, but it's also got bad ergonomics. It's far too easy to accidentally trigger a scroll. It was bad enough when all you could do was accidentally zoom, but the infinite pages update really messed with it.
  • packetlost 2y ago
    This is pretty much all of my concerns as well. The top like 2/3rds of mine is pretty accurate on the tip of the pencil when writing, but on the bottom 1/3rd it's off by about 2mm and it's freaking obnoxious. It makes me hate writing on it to the point where I've gone back to real paper. I do occasionally use it for reading papers and other page-sized PDFs, but it's really not worth the cost for writing.
    • regularfry 2y ago
      I use mine mostly for drawing diagrams and sketches, and the fact that I can barely predict the start point, end point, or route that a line I'm drawing will take means that it's rough sketches at best. Enough to capture an idea but I'm reminded how far from heaven we are when I go back to a propelling pencil on sketch paper.
    • AlanYx 2y ago
      Pen accuracy uniformity has always been one of the bigger issues with the RM2 in comparison to its e-ink competitors. It's beyond annoying to pick up the pen to dot an "i" and see the dot appear a mm away from the rest of the letter, especially if you're writing along the right edge of the device. This is probably one of the motivations why they're ditching EMR pens in this new device.
      • packetlost 2y ago
        If the new pens fix the issue, that alone is worth an upgrade, but I think it's too late for me. 1 RM Pro vs a nice notebook, pencil, eraser, lead, and iPad Air for about the same cost is just... not happening. I'm not falling for it again.
• ThouYS 2y ago
  why get a remarkable, and get screwed by the company, when you can get a much cheaper boox go 10.3? it runs android and you can do what you like with it
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
• lolinder 2y ago
  Does anyone with a ReMarkable have any experience with hacking on it? Can you write software for it, or are you pretty much stuck with what they offer out of the box? And if you can't write software for it, any recommendations for a hackable e-ink tablet?
  • NoboruWataya 2y ago
    I haven't tried it but the PineNote is an attempt to be a hackable alternative: https://pine64.org/devices/pinenote/ https://pine64.org/devices/pinenote/ But from what I have read software support for the device is very unfinished and not moving that quickly. So while you can hack on it, you will also likely need to. (EDIT: Some other comments here appear to be suggesting that this is unlikely to come back in stock.)
  • hcaz 2y ago
    Seems like you can, but not clear how easy it is - https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
    • j6m8 2y ago
      You can write software for it but reMarkable as a company has been downright adversarial to the open source community and MOST of the tools on that Awesome page are now defunct because reMarkable has obfuscated API endpoints or changed file-standards to prevent third party efforts.
  • rsolva 2y ago
    There is quite a lot of hacking possible on the RM1 and RM2 at least. This repo has a nice overview over the many projects: https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
    • appletrotter 2y ago
      Many of those projects are defunct, remarkable hacking is truly in a dark ace.
• swayvil 2y ago
  X-twitter puts their x in the top right of the box. Talk about your dark patterns. I just noticed that.
• 65 2y ago
  Just my perspective, but I returned my Remarkable 2 - I don't think I personally had a compelling use case for it. Ultimately this thing is not going to magically make you super creative and productive. Frankly it's easier for me to be more productive by using my laptop. I prefer typing notes because I can keep up with what my brain is thinking. I prefer reading books on my computer with the Books app. If I'm trying to work something out visually I'll use my sketchbook which I have at my desk. But this is just how I like to do things. You might be different. I really liked the Remarkable but it just didn't work into my workflow.
• keiferski 2y ago
  This looks pretty interesting and definitely something I’d like to try out for reading - but, on a different note, I’ve been using ChatGPT to scan in my handwritten notes and have been very impressed with the results. So much so that I’m increasingly less interested in a clunky expensive device that isn’t always accurate, and more interested in a way to efficiently scan in and organize paper notes. I haven’t tried the Remarkable but in my experience there is nothing quite like a well-designed pen and high-quality paper that when you really want to write stuff down and think on paper. It makes me wonder if an alternative route to this type of tech is to integrate OCR more into a device.
  • j6m8 2y ago
    ha — that's exactly what I've been working on on a separate reMarkable project posted earlier today [1] :) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41437740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41437740
• gocsjess 2y ago
  > The future of paper is here Off-topic: If the future is less paper, then should we dig more holes in the earth's surface to make digital papers. I mean the alternative is just replanting.
• bsnnkv 2y ago
  I have a remarkable 2 that never gets used any more. All I wanted was to be able to natively highlight PDFs and ePUB books, so that I could write some code to export those highlights for myself. I gave up waiting for that and I doubt it will ever be a reality. Such a shame and such a waste.
• mrcwinn 2y ago
  It’s disappointing there is no Kindle app, unlike the Supernote and some others. And yet on the Supernote, it’s disappointing there’s no night light. Please, Remarkable, find a way.
• gokaygurcan 2y ago
  My wife has reMarkable 2, pre-ordered it before the release. If you are writing a lot or working on a text file to take notes etc. it's a great product. If you're connecting a keyboard to an e-ink device, you're doing something wrong. That's my take after seeing her using it for the last few years. I also agree with other comments here regarding the software being too slow to develop and some dark patterns (such as subscription stuff for the new users). Feels more and more like the makes are not sure what to do and trying to shoot in every direction sometimes. You have a very good product, just make it great and that's it. Pro tip (no pun intended): get a Lamy al-star emr pen for a better writing experience, if you are not comfortable with the default pen being too thin.
  • dotancohen 2y ago
    I have a cheap foldable split Bluetooth keyboard that I connect to my e-ink Boox often enough. Why not? The device has a large enough screen to be a laptop and it's very easy on the eyes. I really don't care what the typing latency is, I don't look at the keyboard nor the screen while typing.
    • gokaygurcan 2y ago
      Well, it's your device, and you can do whatever you want with it (within legal limits). But it feels like buying a 72-inch and using it as a monitor. Just because you can do something, it doesn't always mean you should do them. (and just like that, I also made enemies with 72-inch tv people) Self-correction: I guess that's also the direction reMarkable team wants to go with Type Folio anyways. Who am I to judge, right?
    • tomjen3 2y ago
      Which did you get? I have been looking for a good foldable bluetooth keyboard for a while to pair with my iPads.
  • 23B1 2y ago
    Which tip/configuration is appropriate for the RM2? Having trouble finding that information on the Lamy site!
• DiggyJohnson 2y ago
  Love the hardware hate the software. I’m a heavy user, but won’t buy another device from them, unfortunately. Debugging sync issues has been very difficult for me and it’s hard to just reset the device because it’s hard to export annotated files.
• Fraterkes 2y ago
  Question for hn people: does e-ink vs (blue-filtered) lcd actually matter? As in, is there much indication that lcds have worse effects on eye-strain, sleep and focus, as long as you the light is mostly warm.
  • dotancohen 2y ago
    I can use my E-Ink devices all day with zero eyestrain, which are Barnes & Noble Nook devices and now a Boox device.
  • skydhash 2y ago
    LCD screens project light on your face (and in your eyes). E-ink does not. And there's the whole sun thing (altough I rarely use my Kobo outside). I don't know about sleep and focus (I sleep easily and like a rock) but I can use my kobo without glasses, which I can only do for a short time with LCD.
    • sam29681749 2y ago
      Dumb question, but isn't light being project in our face the only way we can see things? Does it have something to do with the brightness of that light or the fact that it's direct that is bad?
      • skydhash 2y ago
        I (non-expert) think that it’s the fact that it’s more about the brightness. And screens are really bright. And there’s the contrast with the surrounding environment. I’ve read that the brightness of the screen should be roughly equal to the amount of light reflected by a piece of white paper for ergonomics. E-ink is a surface illuminated by light while lcd are just light filtered and usually brighter.
  • giraffe_lady 2y ago
    It's much more pleasant especially in very bright light like when outdoors. And this depends on the device but you usually have a much much lower minimum illumination level too. A phone or tablet on the lowest brightness still pretty much lights up a dark room while e-ink does not. Big difference if you read in bed with someone who is asleep.
• morning-coffee 2y ago
  We've reached "peak something" with this much collective energy spent contemplating an expensive and complicated "solution" to a problem that is solved pretty simply and cheaply by a good spiral bound notebook and a nice pen. I love this marketing soundbite too: > “reMarkable gives me the deep focus required to work on complex problems.” Mmmm. Yeah. I usually have to find a quiet place and eliminate distractions to get deep focus, but nice to know I can just carry this new device around with me and never lose deep focus!
  • skydhash 2y ago
    Paper is nice, but can be cumbersome to organize. While I love physical books, my e-reader is so much convenient as it's lighter than the majority of book and I only have the one thing to bring. So if you like to take notes (and refer to them later) something like this could be great. But I agree that it is too much expensive for what it offers and too locked down. At least with the iPad, you can install third-party apps to sync files and what not. P.S. I was seriously considering it, but I went back to paper after trying to use my iPad for digital notetaking (too much distraction and the main apps, goodnotes and notability, have become awful). I have a clipboard and a ram of paper as a thinking tool. Then I copy the final result in a text file.
  • Ancapistani 2y ago
    > a problem that is solved pretty simply and cheaply by a good spiral bound notebook and a nice pen. You're right, but only mostly :) The paper and pen that it replaced for me certainly wasn't cheap. I bought the rM2, keyboard folio, and the pen, so I'm all-in for around $1k USD. My EDC pens are all around the $150-$400 mark. There are use cases that it does much better, though. I regularly use mine in Zoom meetings, and the desktop app allows me to screencast my rM2 to the call. It's super nice to be able to draw a diagram "on paper" and have everyone on the call see what I'm doing. > I can just carry this new device around with me and never lose deep focus! This is a net zero, at least for me. Before, I had two notebooks (one for work, one for personal stuff) and a pen. Now I have a single device that's the same height and width, but is about 1/3 as thick. The weight is a bit less. It's not distracting because all I can do with it is take notes and read PDFs/ebooks. Actually, I take it back. It's a net win. I no longer have a separate Kindle that I carry with me.
• jmspring 2y ago
  I’ve got an RM2. It was super useful when I was taking some glasses and had to submit electronically. Outside that use case, I rarely have used it.
• beoberha 2y ago
  My RM2 is sitting in a drawer. I really wanted to like it and build it into my daily workflow, but the software never made me feel I was being productive. Scrolling through notes is incredibly slow, so any attempt to reference a past note was just met with frustration and yearning for a paper notebook.
  • nfriedly 2y ago
    Pass it on to someone else then. It looks like you can get ~$300 for it on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=remarkable+2&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1 https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=remarkable+2&rt=nc&LH_S...
    • beoberha 2y ago
      Woah I’m shocked! I’ll definitely be doing that.
  • withinrafael 2y ago
    Same here, and PDFs are very slow to load and sometimes fail. It's also just a tad too heavy for one handed use.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • throwaway9524 2y ago
    Same story with my reMarkable 2. It's one purchase I still regret years later. I take a lot of handwritten notes and bought the reMarkable to keep them organized and indexed for full-text search. Well, the writing recognition turned out to be too imprecise and clunky to use, with many manual steps required and nothing even close to transparent background indexing that lets you search handwritten notes (okay, expecting that is a failure of expectations and product research on my part, but still, it felt like an obvious feature to go with the sync subscription...). Worse, having to put up with e-ink latency when typing out a search query quickly proved to be too tedious, and the software doesn't help, as you can't even do text search across all notebooks, only within a single one (what's the point of having directory and notebook hierarchies, then?) And that's the core functionality, secondary stuff like reading ebooks is even worse. It kind of exists, but the experience compared to say the recent Kindles is absolutely subpar. It's not just software though, I also couldn't get used to the feel of the pen, it's too taxing to use for any non-trivial note taking and the lag, while impressively short for an e-ink device, is still there. Honestly, I regret getting swayed by all the positive reviews I'd seen on HN. I'm sure there are use cases where the reMarkable works better, maybe PDF annotation or sketching, but I don't feel it measurably improves on the paper note taking experience, and I don't feel it justifies the steep price if that's what you buy it for.
• alexpetralia 2y ago
  I use the Fujitsu Quaderno A4 as my daily reader and notetaker (PDFs only).. it is absolutely fantastic. Simple but extremely thoughtful design. Extraordinarily light, durable, long battery. "It just works".
  • tuix 2y ago
    Great to see Quaderno A4 mentioned. Using it everyday. Highly recommend it. Sad that it's not easy to find in many markets
  • criddell 2y ago
    Does it OCR handwritten notes? Can you export the PDFs that have been annotated? How do you get documents onto and off of the device?
    • alexpetralia 2y ago
      1. It may (as I do know it has OCR) but I am not sure for handwritten notes 2. Yes 3. I download all PDFs onto my phone, then NFC "tap" them onto my device. Similar vice versa
  • sam29681749 2y ago
    Most reviews I have seen say the battery life is terrible (which is the reason I haven't bought one). Can you share a little more on your experience and the 'long battery'.
    • alexpetralia 2y ago
      I use it "off and on" (say 1-2 hours each day) for several days.. I probably charge it once every 3 to 4 days (and by then maybe it's 30-40%)? I haven't noticed a battery issue at all. My intuition is it lasts a week with normal usage. I always make sure to keep Wifi/NFC off of course (as it is not an Internet device).
  • tony2016 2y ago
    I only see covers and screen protectors on Amazon. Is this a discontinued tablet?
• r0fl 2y ago
  It’s $1250 with a pencil and keyboard in Canada That pricing is just insane
• thefz 2y ago
  Will I be able to use it without creating an account with the company? Will I be able to use it if the company fails? Will I be able to install third party firmware and software?
  • Ancapistani 2y ago
    I've had an rM2 for a few years now, and can answer these. > Will I be able to use it without creating an account with the company? I _think_ so. I created one, and am not willing to wipe my device to see if it's required. I _have_ used mine for months without connecting it to the network, so it's certainly not required on a regular basis. > Will I be able to use it if the company fails? Yes. The "Connect" service is nice and all, but really the big that that it provides is an easy way to sync files to and from the device. That's not required; you can just use USB to transfer if you want. > Will I be able to install third party firmware and software? Yes. There are active F/OSS projects out there for the rM2, including custom bootloaders, OS forks, and applications.
    • thefz 2y ago
      Thanks.
• ksec 2y ago
  Something I always thought Apple would have done it. Instead it seems RM PP may just be good enough. I am now wondering if we could have a reMarkable Paper Pro Mini, a pocket version I can carry around and take notes.
• fph 2y ago
  How do e-ink devices work for teaching? My use case is teaching mathematics: streaming my notes to a class using a projector, and recording them. I am reasonably satisfied with a Surface tablet, apart from the lack of Linux; do you think this would be an improvement?
• conradludgate 2y ago
  I bought the rM1 but using it for notes was pretty poor experience :/ Writing was AMAZING. Reading back my notes on other pages was awful. I just want to quickly flip between pages. Apparently the rM2 was no better. I don't expect this to have significantly improved the refresh rate
• Tieje 2y ago
  I chose Supernote because the battery is replaceable. Like a real notebook, I don't care about accessing the internet. I care about reading, writing, cloud storage, and product life-time. If I wanted to access the internet, I'd just use a real computer.
  • oniony 2y ago
    How does cloud storage work without the internet?
    • Tieje 2y ago
      I meant browser. There's no browser support. It syncs with Google Drive and there are no other options yet. You can connect to the IP of the device through your desktop browser to directly manage folders and files on the device though.
• jchoksi 2y ago
  I considered getting a ReMarkable a couple of years ago. My primary needs were note taking and PDF reading for studies. The ReMarkable's low powered hardware and limited app ecosystem put me off. Also, I didn't want multiple devices i.e. a tablet and a seperate note taking device. So, I settled on getting a Samsung Tablet with a S-Pen and using the "Flexcil Notes & PDF Reader" app. The tablet was not cheaper than ReMarkable but I had access to all the apps in the Android ecosystem. The note taking app was not free and its premium features make it cost between £4.59 - £10.49 if billed through Google Play store. The app was well worth it and you can search for reviews of it on Youtube. If you are planning on getting a ReMarkable for studying, I'd suggest to instead consider using an iPad or Android tablet with pen support instead. - https://www.flexcil.com/ https://www.flexcil.com/ - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flexcil.flexcilnote https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flexcil.fl... - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flexcil-note-good-pdf-reader/id1531466462 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flexcil-note-good-pdf-reader/i... - https://www.youtube.com/@flexcil5010/videos https://www.youtube.com/@flexcil5010/videos
  • bcye 2y ago
    Adding to this, another great option is getting a Wacom One for your laptop. They're available for 30$ and you can use desktop note taking apps like OneNote or Xournal++ if you're more comfortable with them + you have the multitasking features of a laptop OS.
• charles_f 2y ago
  As much as I like the concept, and would love to have a use, I don't see how I'd apply that to my life. Writing documents is likely impractical (ocr seems bad, and I doubt it'd like my handwriting in particular). Reviewing them maybe, but it doesn't plug to the online tools we use at work, and then comments are only for yourself. Maybe when reading a paper and underlining a few things? Which is the odd case I switch to paper for strides of time, which I don't see a point in replacing by a device that needs a charge and costs 1000cad
• Cieric 2y ago
  I figure I'll drop this here just in case. I don't really use my RM2 since keeping it in my backpack caused the cover to start getting destroyed. I wrote this as a "is this possible" type program. It ssh's into the tablet and then emulates a stylus through the windows api. Worked with things like blender and krita. Can't say I'm likely to update it again, but it at least worked last I tested it. Also note it doesn't install anything on the device it only reads out the device file for the pen. https://github.com/ookami125/Remarkable-Stylus https://github.com/ookami125/Remarkable-Stylus
• selykg 2y ago
  I previously wrote about how difficult it was to return and get a refund on a Remarkable 2. It was hell. I would highly recommend avoiding them like the freaking plague if you're at all on the fence, because it's a hellacious process to return one. I also assume that if you were to ever need to use the warranty for any purpose that requires returning the product it's going to be the same thing and also awful. Buyer beware.
  • kweks 2y ago
    I appear to be in the minority where the RM2 is a perfect fit for my needs - but I can confirm that their support is aggressively anti-customer, and also non-compliant with EU consumer laws. My device broke in warranty (< 1 year). Customer support refused replacements, finally offering a 2nd-hand / refurbished replacement (illegal according to EU law). Despite my attempts at polite out-reach to individuals at the company, including C-level, everything was ignored until a lawyer friend sent a formal letter - and suddenly everything was magically resolved the next day. It's such an expensive device, and each press-release makes it more and more cultish - I couldn't recommend buying this - I'll wait for a competitor to do a better job.
    • selykg 2y ago
      Ugh, that sucks. I had hoped my experience was a one off situation but I've heard from others over the past few years that they have had the same type of problem.
    • tr3ntg 2y ago
      They even acted unhelpful in a bug report I tried to submit. I provided ample detail, and they continued to request other things that didn’t seem relevant. I supplied all version numbers, my account info, versions of my devices (iOS and Rm2), a screen recording, and I think it never got fully filed since I didn’t keep responding to them? The bug was critical imo. The app wasn’t saving my work, and then would crash. It’s supposed to be “like paper” plus sync. But it’s not like paper, and sync is unreliable. So, I use for an extremely narrow set of functions now. That is, editing my writing.
  • 2y ago
• _benj 2y ago
  I had an iPad Air, which I changed for a reMarkable 2 and I couldn't be happier! I see a lot of people here commenting about the limitations of it, and I get it. For me personally those limitations are features. My needs are mostly note taking and reading technical PDFs, and for that the reMarkable is fantastic. I used it extensively while taking Calculus, which, it was great to use as many pages as I needed and to write as big as I wanted without worrying about "wasting" paper. I miss background light from time to time, which I think is a great addition. I'm not super familiar with alternatives so I can't say that is better than X or Y, but I personally have been moving as much as I can to single purpose electronic devices. That allows me to be more focus and not fight my device wanting to distract me. That takes out every eInk table that has android for me, I don't want a yet another multipurpose device that I need to develop discipline to use it! On that line, I love my kindle, but that spends about 90% of the time in airplane mode, because, again, the kindle is for readin, the reMarkable for taking notes and reading Datasheets and such... But, that's just me :-)
  • freilanzer 2y ago
    > My needs are mostly note taking and reading technical PDFs, and for that the reMarkable is fantastic. I do both of those and I dislike the RM2. There's little space for notes above and below the PDF page, no infinite canvas. I have more space on the back of a printed PDF (to the left of the current text page) than in the RM2. So, all note taking in a PDF for me is just keywords, while I would much prefer to put text and drawing,s graphs, etc. all around the PDF page. So, for the last few months I have barely used the RM2 and have gone back to pen and paper.
    • _benj 2y ago
      Makes sense… my note taking is more like highlighting and such, since I later get those out into my project documentation
    • catchmost 2y ago
      Try checking for software updates? My RM2 got infinite canvas in an update some time ago. That said, I don't really use that feature and find it annoying when I accidentally move the canvas instead of turning to the next page. This whole paper tablet space looks like a place full of tradeoffs where it's hard to please everyone... IMHO overall remarkable is doing that balancing act quite well.
• jval43 2y ago
  I'm done with ReMarkable, the company. I have the original reMarkable and was enthusiastic at first, but it's been downhill since. It's clear the company is now run mostly by marketing and business people. At some point they didn't do any software development at all, and soon after they actually removed features. None of the original hacker spirit has remained. Most of your money is going to marketing. The device and software are insanely overpriced, and I see their ads everywhere. Never buying any of their devices again.
  • moritzruth 2y ago
    I had the same experience with the reMarkable 2.
  • wslh 2y ago
    I agree with the comment. Owner of the reMarkable 2. I also think that in this case making an open source ecosystem gives more business benefit for reMarkable because very soon they will disappear with the growing number of competitors (and new tech) arising.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • freilanzer 2y ago
    I have the RM2 and it took them one and a half years of me owning it until I could draw straight lines. I still can't search in notes, even after converting them to text. If I don't annotate everything I write with tags, then I'll have a hard time finding it again. The screen is imprecise, sometimes the line appears 1mm away from the tip of the pen. Their synchronisation service costs monthly, I think 3€? I'm simply underwhelmed, especially for this price. The Supernote would have been a much better choice for me - now I'm looking at the Samsung Tab S9 series for real note taking.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
• davidy123 2y ago
  Whenever I start looking into a device like this, I'm reminded how much progress has been held back by the grip Amazon has on the book world. Building on shared book annotations would be a great way to develop intelligence, but it can only be on the down-low.
• jarbus 2y ago
  So crazy how divided people on HN are about this product series. If this device also supports SSH, it seems like it should be solid since you can bypass most of the other subscription features, no?
• dcchambers 2y ago
  My first-gen Remarkable is still working fine although the software and display speed feel painfully slow these days. I even have a free "for life" Connect plan because I was an early customer...and it does work well for the most part like you would expect any cloud syncing service to do. But I am interested in replacing it with something newer...and while years ago I was pining for color e-ink - I am not so sure it's something I need/want any more. After seeing how fast the Daylight Computer^1 display is (60fps), and the fact that it supports a massive variety of apps because it runs Android, I think that's the route I want to go to replace my Remarkable... [^1]: https://daylightcomputer.com https://daylightcomputer.com
• lallysingh 2y ago
  It appears RM's out of fashion now. But mine does exactly what it promised to do: let me write and sometimes highlight PDFs. The latter got better after persistent zoom - you zoom the PDF once for the margins and it remembers it for ongoing pages. I got grandfathered into the connect service, it's also $36/yr, so not a huge deal? I transfer using the app. The app also lets you screenshare your drawing live, so I use it to draw during video conferences. That's been useful a few times. It didn't promise to be a full-on tablet, and its value prop is in not being one. I prefer that it doesn't run a full mobile OS with other apps. That's against the damned point. I just want something to replace the paper stack I usually have near my laptop.
• JadeNB 2y ago
  Should the link be to the product page https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-paper/pro https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-paper/pro , rather than to the overall ReMarkable home page?
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• cubefox 2y ago
  So according to the "deep guide" video review, this uses E Ink's "Gallery 3" e-paper screen. Which, unlike conventional displays, doesn't use additive subpixel color mixing. Instead it uses subtractive color mixing inside each pixel: It layers transparent cyan, magenta and yellow, and opaque white pigments, over each other. Which creates cyan, magenta, yellow and white as primary colors, and red, green, blue and black as secondary colors. Other shades are then created via dithering those eight base colors. So it works very similar to an inkjet printer. Since it doesn't use subpixels, the screen seems to have a similar brightness to greyscale E Ink displays, which is reasonably close to printed paper. However, the color saturation is clearly still not quite on the level of actual printed paper. Here is a comparison shot between Gallery 3 and Kaleido 3 (the latter uses conventional subpixels to create colors): https://assets.goodereader.com/blog/uploads/images/2023/03/23222158/P1170695-copy-scaled.jpg https://assets.goodereader.com/blog/uploads/images/2023/03/2... And of course the reaction times are not as fast as LCD/OLED. As is well known, E Ink uses electrophoresis e-paper screens, where solid electrically charged pigments are moved around in a liquid, which is a slow process. It also still requires a "deghosting" refresh once the screen changes, but interestingly those refreshs are now only applied to the parts of the screen which actually have changed pixel values, which looks significantly less distracting in my opinion.
  • opdahl 2y ago
    This makes you wonder if they are hitting some sort of physical limit regarding e-ink technology and color representation. If they are forced to dither them like they are doing now, will we ever get good saturation with e-ink?
    • cubefox 2y ago
      Printers also use dithering, it's not a limitation for saturation. The saturation only depends on how saturated the base colors are. The actual physical limitation is the electrophoresis technology. I'm pretty sure moving particles around in a viscous fluid will never be fast.
  • whereistimbo 2y ago
    Japan Display Inc showcased e-paper like LCD 11 years ago. It even has e-paper features like retained pixel at low power consumption. With further work notetaking will be possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mdXu9jmTI2A https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mdXu9jmTI2A
• freedomben 2y ago
  There aren't many companies for whom I have love like Remarkable. All I've ever wanted is hardware that isn't needlessly closed or locked down, that is hacker friendly. Remarkable mostly delivered that. But it feels like they've been increasingly moving away from that, especially where the openness now competes with their cloud subscription. Given the amount of love the open source community has shown Remarkable, I think they could let the community build some amazing software for them. This would be doubly beneficial because the software is the weak point currently for the Remarkable. If they were to open source the existing software, even with a CLA copyright assignment, I bet there'd be a huge influx of people contributing. I hope with this new Paper Pro that they are moving in the direction of openness/hackability and not more closed like they did with the Remarkable 2. Would love to hear from people who have tried the Paper Pro about how that is. Side note: If you haven't gotten the RCU utility application, you definitely should! It's a great tool[1] [1]: https://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/ https://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/
  • ChuckMcM 2y ago
    Pretty classic enshittification. I expect one response might end up being 'contract' developers who sign a contract of 3 years to develop an application and then after three years they go out and find a new contract. I reason to this because software in hardware produces revenue only during hardware sales which typically fall off after the initial wave. Without continual revenue your business model goes upside down when you have developers for whom you don't have any work. So we get bullshit work and eventually we get 'RMR' or recurring monthly revenue because well we need to pay these folks. Of course building an enterprise like that would require retooling your process with massive emphasis on sustainable build tools that are 'done' and similarly libraries. We massive documentation on taking the product firmware out of the archive and re-createing the entire build / test workflow with new developers. A company like that might have 500 developers during initial product development and first shipments, that then reduces down to 10 or fewer for maintenance needs. The surprising thing is that a lot of open source is actually kind of like this, a new 'thing' is out there and the number of people making contributions grows, and then it is 'shipped' or 'done' and the number of contributors reduces down to a handful, sometime zero, developers. Growing again when a zero day or CVE needs to be fixed and then back to zero. Because its OSS nobody is paying them, or maybe they are being paid by another company that uses the package and needs a fix, but the whole software development model is going to be completely changed over the next 10 - 20 years.
• nerdjon 2y ago
  Every time I see this device pop up, I really struggle to find out what exactly this has over something like an iPad with an Apple Pencil? With this one being $579 including the basic marker. The iPad Air with an 11" screen with the cheaper pencil is $678. iPad with an 11" screen and the cheaper pencil is $428. If it is the screen feel, how does that compare to the paperlike screen protectors for iPad? Some say a lack of distractions, but you can turn on do not disturb? I am just really curious what this solves vs other tablets that I am missing here, especially at this price point. Or is there something I am really missing here?
  • adastra22 2y ago
    For someone with ADHD, “do not disturb” is not a reliable solution to the distraction problem.
    • ilynd 2y ago
      Why don't you just not install any apps besides work apps on the ipad?
      • goosedragons 2y ago
        I don't think Apple let's you completely remove Safari. That in itself is a giant distraction.
        • nasmorn 2y ago
          You can have a different person set up parental mode with an unknown pin
      • adastra22 2y ago
        Mere internet access (which you can’t really remove) and shiny UI elements are the problem.
    • nerdjon 2y ago
      That kinda sounds like a thing where a big improvement to the Focus feature to lock you to a specific app (or disable apps instead of just removing them from your Home Screen) would address this problem?
• snickerbockers 2y ago
  Reminds me of my old livescribe pen i had as an undergrad. It was a ballpoint-pen with a little computer inside and a camera pointing down the tip of the pen. You'd use it with special notebooks that had very small dot-patterns printed on the paper, and the computer could decode that to get its position on the page. Then you'd plug it into your PC's USB port to upload a digital copy of your notes. There was surprisingly-good OCR to make it searchable and also the pen had a microphone that recorded what your professor was saying during any given penstroke. And that's in addition to having the physical notebook the ballpoint pen wrote on. Looks like they still exist but they haven't done much in the last 15 years. They used to make these high-quality leather-bound notebooks but now it seems they only have cheap spiral-bound ones. Worse, the pen still costs about $200 so it's not in anyway competitive with remarkable. I'm contemplating going to grad school and I might try to dig up my old livescribe pen if I can find it (I think I saw it a year or two ago in some box of assorted odds and ends) but the lack of high-quality journals is a disappointment and if I can't find my old livescribe pen I'd rather try out remarkable than spend 10x as much on a nearly-dead product that had far more potential but seems to be on life-support. Wish livescribe would at least open-source their software if they no longer care about it.
  • joacco 2y ago
    I too had a livescribe pen 12 or so years ago! It was so cool for the time
  • chatmasta 2y ago
    I had one of those. It also had some audio transcription capability, so you could take notes aligned with a lecture and then tap a letter on the page to play the audio that was recorded when you wrote it. I never used it extensively but I remember it also had a nice integration with EverNote. That was truly a bygone era of productivity tools that are now zombie companies…
• crooked-v 2y ago
  For me the killer anti-feature of reMarkable devices is the limited storage. I have way more than 64 GB of ebooks and PDFs (lots of full-color tabletop game books), so anything that has both such limited storage and no SD card slot is off my radar.
  • stonogo 2y ago
    It's not good as an e-book reader regardless of how much storage you need. It renders epubs to pdf on the fly (so changing the font size induces a long delay in a big document, for instance). The documentation even tells you it's not a good ebook reader.
  • tony2016 2y ago
    Do you need to have hundreds and thousands of pdfs on a reading device? How fast can you read?
• gadders 2y ago
  I'd love to use one of these at work (or a similar product) but they've been banned because they ship the data off to some other cloud somewhere so they've been deemed a security risk.
• beefman 2y ago
  Better URL: https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-paper/pro https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-paper/pro
• winter_blue 2y ago
  I don't get why the Canadian price is CA$929 when the US price is $579. That's an "exchange rate" of 1 USD = 1.6045 CAD. That is a far cry from the actual exchange rate (which is 1 USD = ~1.35 CAD). And ReMarkable isn't the only company selling products at rip-off pricing to Canadians. This absolutely sucks.
  • geraldwhen 2y ago
    Looks like 20% VAT
    • winter_blue 2y ago
      The duty on tablets & e-readers in Canada is 0% regardless of which country the tablet / e-reader was made in, according to: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-eng.html https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-en... (there's a specific duty category for tablets and e-readers) Sales tax is 13% in Ontario, so even with that, the exchange rate should be 1.35 * 1.13 = 1.53 not the 1.60 exchange rate they use. I'm assuming shipping is already included in the price in the US as well, and shipping cost in Canada shouldn't be that much different compared to the US. I guess if the cost of shipping is higher in Canada, then that explains the USD-CAD conversion jump from 1.53 to 1.60.
      • geraldwhen 2y ago
        Shipping definitely costs more, and there may be a small buffer in there for currency fluctuations. Margins on hardware are slim.
• cpard 2y ago
  I love to write, actually I think I have to write as it’s the only way I’ve figured out on how to put guardrails on my thoughts. I got my first remarkable a few years ago and I was super excited, I thought it could be the bridge between my need to write and the digital world. I gave up, I also tried an iPad too but again I gave up. I ended up using a cheap fountain pen and the paper that I like its texture. I think the problem with all these devices is that from a product perspective they focus on the wrong things. I don’t care about colors and syncing with the cloud or whatever else. I care about emulating an as close as possible experience to natural writing and that means latency of the device and the tactile feeling I get when I touch the screen with the pen are the most important aspects. I haven’t seen much there happening and maybe these are just too hard problems to solve. Or maybe I’m just a member of a too niche group of people. But until I find a digital writing instrument that gives me the sensory feedback of a pen an a paper I don’t see me going back to these devices.
• jrh3 2y ago
  I need a stack of these to replace paper. The great thing about paper is that it's easy to look at several pieces simultaneously.
• minimalist 2y ago
  Just for everyone's reference, there is a rich community of third-party packages [0] ("apps") and launchers for rM and rM2, so it's possible to add on any number of sync (syncthing), encryption (gocrpytfs), epub (koreader), web browsing (netsurf), vnc (vnsee), wacom driver and more. The user get's root shell access from the beginning, and you can automate all sorts of things using systemd and standard shell utilities. The out-of-the-box software may be a bit barebones for some power users, but you can certainly add-on the functionality that you desire. [0]: https://toltec-dev.org/testing/ https://toltec-dev.org/testing/
• freedomben 2y ago
  Launch event video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcuoqE3Qumk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcuoqE3Qumk Interesting approach/angle they are taking about being distraction-free. Intentionally no email, etc.
• tristor 2y ago
  I have a reMarkable 2 that I use pretty regularly. I have had the same pin nib breakage other folks have had, but ate the $130 to replace my pen. Since that, I haven't had any issues. It's generally a great device that I enjoy using, although I don't use it while I'm at home because I have my custom mechanical keyboard and can type much faster than I write in Standard Notes in Markdown. Every time I take a trip though, I take my rM2 with me, and it's my primary on-the-go notetaking tool and I take a /lot/ of notes. I did a bit of research and decided to go ahead and jump on the Paper Pro. I hope it's worth it, because it's quite a bit more expensive than the rM2 was.
• kkfx 2y ago
  Well... While I admire reMarkable in technical terms, I'll not buy a black box where I have to hack the box just to manage my system. I do not care much about handwriting recognition and other "cool solution to help the end user", I do care about no eye strain reading of LONG damn documents, where scrolling distract instead of help, and casual ability to draw things. Period. Unfortunately they took a classic commercial path, maybe fueled by many "users desires" described by users who have not much an idea about how they can use such devices and the result is well... Not exiting especially for the price. I have no issue paying something I own, I do not pay for something I can only use.
  • eythian 2y ago
    Do you mean hack the box in "go to this page in the settings where it tells you the root password", or something else?
    • kkfx 2y ago
      No, in plain filesystem access, mounting it like any other file system on a mass storage, putting there my pdfs, pulling them back etc. I do look for a simple pdf/ebook reader with e-ink display large enough to fit A4 without zooming back, with essentially the same features of Evince/pdf-tools and so on. NOTHING more, nor less, nor with extra layer of complexity for commercial purposes.
      • eythian 2y ago
        Nothing* does mass storage these days, because you a) don't want to run your filesystem as FAT32, b) have two devices mounting one disk at the same time. But anyway, you don't have to hack anything, they literally give you all the access you could ask for. Run samba on it if you want. * I'm sure there are exceptions, but they're not common in my experience.
        • kkfx 2y ago
          > don't want to run your filesystem as FAT32 I have no issues mounting Linux fs, since my OS... > have two devices mounting one disk at the same time There is exactly NO reasons to allow mounting when the device OS is shut down and there is non reasons to not allowing mounting a data only volume who can be balanced read-only on one or another side. It's simply an arbitrary choice. Anyway, as far I know their OS, a custom GNU/Linux distro is open in the sense of the license but I even need to host their own "fake cloud" just if I want a no-someone-else service needed setup and the unofficial repo is not much more exiting https://toltec-dev.org/stable/ https://toltec-dev.org/stable/ Being open to me does not means "hey you have the code" like AOSP, is being damn open EASILY, the device is mine, I handle it as I handle a desktop computer.
• KaiserPro 2y ago
  This looks insteresting to me. I did look at getting a RM2, but for the same price I could get a iPad with a pencil. Granted the pencil wasn't that great, but the software on the iPad is. I have good notes on the iPad which is great for "journaling" and it almost works like the microsoft courier concept
• beAbU 2y ago
  I'm in the market for something like this, but for sheet music. Something where I can upload PDF copies of music to a reader, annotate them with the stylus, and easily page through the music as part of a performance. I sing choir, so weight is a factor. My Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is just a tad too heavy. I read lots of discussions on comparable devices on this post, can anyone recommend something suitable for music? On android I use MobileSheets which does everything I need.
  • techas 2y ago
    If weight is a factor (and, of course, if you can afford it) the new iPad Pro is an amazing option. Without a cover is the lightest device I’ve seen.
    • beAbU 2y ago
      Thanks, I'm really looking to hop on the e-ink bandwagon though. Having said that, iPad is the de-facto standard for all musicians that I've come across that don't use paper sheet music.
  • eythian 2y ago
    the reMarkable lets you upload PDFs and then you can write on them, so perhaps it can do what you need. I was using mine a little while ago for a PDF-based RPG-type thing which involves a lot of writing on the PDF and it worked quite well (the main downside was the PDF took a while to render as it's very image-heavy but that might work better in your case.)
• rapjr9 2y ago
  In order to replace paper, devices have to compete with paper. I keep paper and pen in every room in my house. I am not going to buy a $600 device for every room in my house. A device had better be very reliable and make offloading easy also.
• roninorder 2y ago
  The website is using a scammy cookie consent modal. Why are respectable companies ok with that?
• dmitrygr 2y ago
  I used to advocate for remarkable. I have one. I got multiple as gifts for people. Now I am a hater. The rug pull that took a $700 one-time-payment device and gated all the features behind a mandatory subscription was a dick move. Please don’t support this company.
  • artdigital 2y ago
    Didn’t us people that had it before the switch to subscription got a lifetime one grandfathered in?
    • dmitrygr 2y ago
      Yes. But the move itself is why I hate them. I detest subscriptionware, Especially for features that don’t require any ongoing service from them. They don’t need server side code for any of the features they took away. It is all local on device. This is like BMW charging subscription for seat heat.
• leetrout 2y ago
  They have been pretty hostile toward the community lately having trademark / copyright watchdogs takedown all sorts of community resources in figma, etsy, etc. I wont be giving them any more of my money.
  • xpe 2y ago
    Can you elaborate on some examples please? Also, if you were in the company's position, what would you do?
• intellix 2y ago
  I guess it's not like my comment is important but saw my colleague really forcing himself to use his RM1 as though it was a gift. Never really understood the purpose of something that was less than 1% as capable as an iPad, even if it may feel better to write on. Sure the battery is probably great due to eInk but honestly my iPad is never out of battery or far from USB-C. I can play games on my iPad for 3hrs and only use 10% battery it's insane. The only thing I will say is that for the iPad I'm still surprised I can't really share my screen and start drawing on a whiteboard in a Slack meeting which was my primary desire for having one. Literally be in a meeting and start sketching boxes and circles to my coworkers to explain things
  • happyopossum 2y ago
    > I'm still surprised I can't really share my screen and start drawing on a whiteboard in a Slack meeting which was my primary desire for having one Are slack meetings really that far behind? I was doing that with my iPad in zoom 5 years ago, and regularly do it in Google meet now…
• zephrx1111 2y ago
  Does this one also have the too-dark screen?
  • throw10920 2y ago
    Too-dark...the Remarkable 2 is e-ink at least, so did you mean low contrast? Or is there some other problem with it?
• throw10920 2y ago
  When I first bought it, my Remarkable 2 was one of the very few pieces of technology (hardware or software) that I didn't actively dislike. Then they started releasing software updates that made the UI slower, moved around the buttons in said UI, made it easy to accidentally select the wrong widgets (e.g. because two widgets are in the same part of the screen and so a double-tap combined with the high refresh latency causes a misinput), made notebook/page loading much slower (which, to their credit, they have fixed), and started adding lots of typing-related features that I don't use or need. The device is still good, but I still find myself getting annoyed at it in a way that I didn't when it was new - although for me that's my experience with virtually all technology. I wish there was a tablet with similar ergonomics that allowed me to tinker with the guts. I want to be able to write Python or C against a simple API and immediately run my code - I don't want to have to write an Android application, which I think is necessary for the BOOXen? I just want to easily write code that processes my pen strokes in real time.
• bimguy 2y ago
  I wonder how long before the incoming lawsuit from Apple / other tech giant / patent troll.
• loongloong 2y ago
  Can anyone share their experiences with the new Kobo colour devices with pen support (like the Libra Colour)? Been itching to upgrade my beloved Libra H20. Thanks in advance.
  • kstrauser 2y ago
    Not color, but I got an Elipsa 2E to augment my Libra 2 (different sizes, different use cases). It works really, really well. The notebook software is nearly as advertised.
    • loongloong 2y ago
      Thanks, quite interested to explore how color and pen will change my use of an eReader...
• wodenokoto 2y ago
  There’s a lot of “I wanted to like the rm2, but” which scares me from buying the pro. Anyone have experience with their 100 days risk free program?
  • r2_pilot 2y ago
    Not presently, but I may possibly have impulse-bought the Pro (nearly got Rm2 but held back for the tech to improve - on paper this seems to be the case for the Pro), and I'm already reconsidering it so I probably will have some experience with that program soon.(n. b. They are not a functional company and cannot cancel orders that have been placed, FYI)
• rldjbpin 2y ago
  can you use it like an ssh thin client? also, yet to see an example of seeing proper coloured pdf on the new display.
• LoveMortuus 2y ago
  I've both bought and sold my ReMarkable 2. I bought it before they added a subscription, so I was spared the pain. For me personally, it was too expensive to be able to just use the device and not worry about damaging it, I even stopped wearing a watch, because I worried that it might scratch the display. I don't have that worry with a notebook, but then again, notebook is physically limited especially when compared to digital tablets. I do enjoy writing, so after I sold my unit, I went back to pen and paper, but I do still love the tech so I keep an eye on it! Usually colour E-ink is slower than monochrome, I wonder what the product will actually look like and function, when it launches.
• amai 2y ago
  Does it have a handwriting recognition capable of converting math formulas to LaTeX? I'm waiting for this since ages. We are supposed to be close to AGI, but we still have no good handwriting recognition on any device.
• marcyschidler 2y ago
  [dead]
• BLACK_hHOLE2729 2y ago
  [flagged]
• meta-level 2y ago
  Oh - did they remove SSH access? With a RM2 you could go to Settings > General > About > Copyrights and licenses and you were shown an IP address and the root password for SSH.. No they didn't - you just have to activate "Developer mode" (forcing a factory reset, so don't set up too much, you'll have to repeat it all..)