6 ms·

Using Two ReMarkables

120 points by breezykermo 2y ago

sudhirkhanger 2y ago
How different does it feel to take notes on Rm2 compared to pen and paper? Can you be equally effective on taking handwritten notes on Rm2?
- DeepYogurt 2y ago
  It's different but gives a similarly nice feel. The surface is a little rough which makes it give a feeling not too dissimilar to that of a chalk board albeit without the chalk. Not sure if that makes sense, but is definitely worth trying if you're curious.
- dunefox 2y ago
  The pen is octnrtimes really imprecise. Sometimes up to 1-2 mm.
- evoke4908 2y ago
  It's definitely a different feel, but not bad. It feels like using a particularly smooth ballpoint on some nice heavyweight stationery. I don't find it particularly noticeable or distracting, but I also don't do much handwriting anymore. It has a pleasant amount of drag and has a very slight squishy feel, like if you're writing on a stack of two or three sheets. My problem is that I apparently apply quite a lot of pressure when writing and the nib in the stylus wears out after a few dozen hours. Some people talk about using titanium nibs, but I'd rather burn through nibs than tear up the irreplaceable screen. The handfeel is fantastic. It really is a wonderfully designed object. However, the writing experience is not great. The digitizer is quite simply bad. RM knows about it and seemingly don't care. The digitizer develops random calibration problems and it becomes impossible to accurately put your pen on any specific spot. You absolutely cannot ever continue a stroke after you've lifted the pen. There is no way to recalibrate. The working theory is stray magnetization inside the digitizer, some people claim that dragging a magnet over the screen helps. It also has some nasty quantization issues. Pen strokes are not vectorised and come out inexplicably jagged and aliased. If you are the type of person who can write quickly with very few mistakes, and without constantly looking at the page, you'd probably get good use out of the RM2. For me, I am abysmal at writing like this and the RM just gets in my way. I do use my RM a fair bit, but for my use case, it's far less convenient than a paper notebook. I'm mostly taking research notes and diagramming things. I don't markup PDFs or take longhand meeting notes or anything. Also, having been involved in the RM modding community, I feel pretty gross about ReMarkable the company. The originally billed this as an open, hackable linux device you can run custom software on. They almost immediately backtracked on this and removed the SDK from their website. Someone in the community has to go and individually email RM developers for a new copy of the SDK after each update. Plus the files that store your notes are in a proprietary format. The only way to get them out is to convert to a PDF on the tablet. Generally I recommend you pass on the RM unless you know what you're in for. It's a beautiful device with horrible software and support.
  - thimabi 2y ago
    > Pen strokes are not vectorised and come out inexplicably jagged and aliased. That’s something I’ve been experiencing with the Kindle Scribe as well. You can’t zoom in on notebooks in the device, but all PDFs exports contain jagged lines everywhere, no matter how straight I write or draw. I can’t explain why these writing-focused devices get this so wrong… a general-purpose iPad does this so much better.
yzydserd 2y ago
I’ve been doing similar! Study notes on one. Exercise notepad on the other.
skavi 2y ago
The people yearn for the Microsoft Courier [0]. [0]: https://youtu.be/UmIgNfp-MdI https://youtu.be/UmIgNfp-MdI
- Multicomp 2y ago
  Agreed. I'm still letting the Lenovo Yoga 9i bake another generation or so and then I'm jumping in. Booklet PC! Finally!! There is an Acer product but it does not fold down flat like the lenovo model does.
  - WillAdams 2y ago
    I am very much hoping that Samsung will make a Yogabook 9i competitor w/ Wacom EMR.
- downrightmike 2y ago
  1.3M views 15 years ago
- qnleigh 2y ago
  I'm looking forward to a non-Windows device that has two screens. Gave up on Windows a while ago, and as much as I love their Surface tablets, I don't think I'll go back.
nxobject 2y ago
It’s worth mentioning that, in Star Trek’s universe, tables were routinely covered in PADDs - not because it’s excessive, but that even with eink the most usable environment was multiple virtual sheets of paper at once.
- evoke4908 2y ago
  Why is it then that this concept only appears in Trek from before 2005 or so? The modern series barely show PADDs at all. No one uses them like this, and most things are holographic. This is not in any way a commentary on technology or ergonomics. This is 100% an artifact of the show being produced in a time where multiple physical pages on a desk is the only way people knew to operate. It was the only option at the time, so they just used that same concept with a different prop. We didn't have multitasking supercomputers in our pockets when TNG was produced, we had physical books that had to be spread out on a physical surface. Trek is not a prediction of the future, it's just a TV show.
  - tolerance 2y ago
    “Realist” media criticism such as this is becoming my favorite form. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42093345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42093345 As well.
  - gamblor956 2y ago
    There are PADDs showing up regularly in Discovery, BNW, LD, and Picard. IOW, in all of the ST shows since 2005... In the 13 year hiatus when there was no TV Star Trek, touch phones and tablets became normal. So PADDs were no longer futuristic, and now they're background objects a viewer doesn't even notice. In the case of specific shows, Discovery and Picard are heavily focused on action, so PADDs generally show up less frequently because there are fewer scenes in which it would be natural for them to show up. Contrast to BNW, which is more traditional Star Trek, and the characters are constantly carrying PADDs around. And LD's earlier seasons have several extended gags revolving around PADDs...
exe34 2y ago
when I'm reading something on my pinenote, I often have a copy open on my laptop (or rarely phone) to look at coloured diagrams but also just to refer to figures without having to switch back and forth. I only take notes in emacs though, having realised that my lifelong dream of digital handwritten notes was just a bit less than practical.
Locutus_ 2y ago
I'm a heavy ReMarkable user, mostly as a note taking device when doing client meetings. For personal use I use it a lot for annotating philosophy papers and source materials, and the lack of a split screen feature is extremely frustrating. Writing annotations or commentaries on texts means writing in the margins or switching back and forth between books (often a paper book and the remarkable for writing, or 2 notebooks in the device which is a slow operation). A split screen mode would have been extremely useful, or lacking that a method for having a page-matched 'fold-out' so I can just associate a full blank page to each source page for my commentary. I know there's an unofficial hack that adds this, but why ReMarkable doesn't I can't fathom, especially as annotations and such are marketed as primary use cases for the device. /rant :)
- dunefox 2y ago
  I find mine close to useless. The pen is sometimes really inconsistent, to the point where the ink gets applied 1mm from the pen tip. Also, no canvas for pdf annotation, no split screen, no search in pdfs and notes, only tags, etc. It's strictly worse than paper for me.
  - WillAdams 2y ago
    That is likely a problem with that specific stylus --- have you tried a different stylus?
  - turtlebits 2y ago
    Have you contacted support? I've had one for over 4 years (and used up 2 packs of nibs) and it writes perfectly, and much prefer it over the iPad.
- parasense 2y ago
  Hi Locutus_ I'm one of those people with "analysis paralysis" towards the E-Ink ecosystem. Remarkable Paper Pro came out while I was researching, and made me aware of the set of dichotomies around the notion of minimalism vs full blow Android, black & white only tablets vs Galery-3 vs Kaliedo, front lights vs having a screen closer to the surface without front lights... It's difficult to enter the e-paper market. For me, I'm a science student currently struggling through classes like Integral Calculus, Linear Angebra, etc... So I'm usually writing math equations. My first question is how does Remarkable handle math writing? I'm guessing there is nothing to read things like a handwritten Sumation, or Integral, and then convert to Tex ? Is black and White really the best kind of e-ink, or is that the prejudice or bias of those old time e-ink users who have been using the tech a while now? What about screen size, is the 10.3 really that great (smaller that A4 paper)? Is Remarkable's "minimalism" claims actually legitimate, or more of a coping mechanism to explain away their apparent lack of features?
nunez 2y ago
I haven't been as excited about technology in a very long time as I have upon discovering eInk devices this year. Most of my Internet usage is skimfeed/Hacker News and the occasional jaunt on Reddit. I've also gotten back into books given how parasitic the Internet has become writ large. The iPad Pro is overkill for this use case, and its screen is harsh on the eyes (unless you use it in what I call "red mode", i.e. dark mode with a 100% red filter overlay). Given this, I wanted an eReader that I could read articles on the Internet with. The Kindle nails the first part, but its web browser sucks all sorts of shit. Enter the BOOX Go Color 7. This thing is exactly what I wanted: a super-capable eReader that's easy on the eyes and small enough to fit in my bum bag. It sucks at videos and is kind of slow, which makes it a slam dunk for my narrow use case. This inspired me to get a reMarkable 2 for keeping track of customer notes (I'm a sales engineer at the moment) and journal my work when I'm hacking on stuff. Loads of people have gushed over how much better this is than an iPad for writing; they are 100% correct. Having a paper feel is everything. No good solutions exist for this on an iPad, but it's totally possible with eInk displays. The rM2 inspired me even further to ditch my iOS weightlifting journal app (Strong) for a Go Color 10.3. I've used all sorts of apps for this purpose over the years (Google Sheets, then JEFIT, then Hevy, then Strong). Since there isn't an open standard for weightlifting logs (lol; can you imagine), all of these have different data schemas that you need to normalize yourself. Gigantic pain in the ass. For this reason, logging reps and sets is so much easier on paper, but I hated keeping track of paper notebooks. This is the perfect replacement. No futzing around on an app, and I can leave my phone at home. It spends nearly 0% battery when its off and barely anything when its on. I can put this in a soft case and leave it in my gym bag for weeks at a time. I even have Kindle and Firefox on this too so I can read books during rest periods. It's incredible. These days, my iPad Pro is only good for being a HDMI and macOS Sidecar monitor. Yes, Onyx refuses to comply with the GPL and has super duper shady stuff pre-installed in their BOOX devices. ONYX is also the only manufacturer that's putting serious money into this niche. Root them, install AFWall+, install AdAway, don't connect your Google account; problem solved. (One last positive I'll mention for the reMarkable: the RM1 and RM2 come with SSH and are rooted out of the box. It even uses systemd to run Xochitl, its frontend. You can hack the living daylights out of these things if you're into that.)
- breezykermo 2y ago
ganoushoreilly 2y ago
I just returned my ReMarkable Pro. I found that split screen was something I wanted and though I had a work around with using my iPad much like Op here, it wasn't ideal. The big nail in the coffin for me was difficulty integrating into my workflow / application stack. I had to use a couple scripts I hacked together to get the data from ReMarkable into the tools I use regularly. For the cost Invested I decided it was just too much. The tech wasn't bad, I was impressed with the build quality, and I think there is a market, without a Jailbreak / easy integration it's just not for me at this time. Bummer.
- CrazyStat 2y ago
  My Boox e-ink tablet has a split screen mode that I use regularly, but I wouldn’t use it on full page (A4/US letter) sized pdfs like journal articles as the text would be too small.
  - thereticent 2y ago
    I chose the Boox over ReMarkable 2 for that reason and the color display. In split-screen, I pretty quickly got used to zooming in on a column or full body width and dragging the PDF around to read it. I guess it's not perfect, but still better than paper or traditional screen for me
- ricardobeat 2y ago
  What was your intended use for the split screen? It sounds like you wanted a tablet with an e-ink screen, which the Remarkable is ostensibly not. I bought my R2 originally with the same mindset, of jailbreaking it to run custom apps, but ended up loving it for what it is: the best and most expensive reading and note-taking device in our era :)
  - ganoushoreilly 2y ago
    Primarily i'm looking for the ability to open various pdfs in a pane, and then have a nice section to write notes, reference those PDFs etc. It's probably doable with some process changes, I just didn't have the time for them. Post Christmas I may give it another shot.
bloopernova 2y ago
I am so disappointed in Amazon for their 1st gen Kindle Scribe. Part of the selling point was being able to write notes by hand, but the only method to get your notes off the Scribe is to email yourself a PDF. Large size screen is nice for reading though.
- thimabi 2y ago
  Even worse: if you send the PDF back to the Scribe, all previously-written notes are uneditable. It seems note taking is treated more like an afterthought. Of course, this means I only use my Scribe as a scratchpad for disposable notes.
- oso2k 2y ago
  100+ The notes organization is awkward, imports/exports are not durable (as another poster mentioned), had several exports fail, and then the only method of export is email. Definitely felt like a device meant for reading ebooks and writing comes a distant second. But the screen and the backlight are far better than the RM2 as is the battery life. For me writing notes daily, I had to stick with the RM2 though.
aebtebeten 2y ago
compare https://xkcd.com/1988/ https://xkcd.com/1988/
vtail 2y ago
After a few days of using Daylight Computer, I have to admit that it solves all the pain points I had with Remarkable 2: - 60 FPS screen makes a huge difference in reading experience, especially if you want to flip through a PDF quickly - It's an Android tablet, meaning that I can use my usual programs and don't have an awkward "how do I bring it to Remarkable and back" process The downsides: - It's $729 vs $379 for the Remarkable 2 - It's heavier However, I'm not going back.
- JoshTriplett 2y ago
  How's the quality of the stylus? Have you found good software for handwriting, both in general and atop existing documents?
  - vtail 2y ago
    I think it's a standard Wacom stylus. I like it overall, the writing is pretty fluid.
  - vtail 2y ago
    For hand-writing, I just use the provided tools (Notebook and Reader). Notebook is OK, Reader is interesting but glitchy (it's their own software I think), but I'm sure Android ecosystem has solved these problems already - I just didn't yet feel the need to invest my time in discovering the best tools.
- tiffanyh 2y ago
  I just returned my Daylight. I found it: - oddly heavy, the Daylight is made of all plastic (body & screen) - yet it’s heavier than an iPad Air made from metal & glass. - handwriting lag, the input lags when I use the pen is so much that it distracts me while writing a sentence. I have to concentrate to ensure it’s keeping up with each letter I write. No such lag exists with my iPad Air. - no setup instructions or tutorial on its unique gestures. You boot it up and have to figure out how it works and getting it on WiFi - display resolution is much worse than I was expecting. - when using chrome, webpages render incredibly small. I’m having to constantly zoom in. There’s a setting in chrome about “desktop mode” but it made no difference. And I also wasn’t expecting to have to sign up for a Google account to even get software updates, even from Daylight. (Maybe I don’t but that’s what the Google App Store made it seem like). Wish I had read this review before I had bought it. https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/20/24201356/daylight-computer-dc-1-hands-on https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/20/24201356/daylight-compute... * Note: I truly love the idea of Daylight, and hope they succeed. But in my mind, a considerable device improvement needs to be made to realize that vision. Until then, I’ll revert back to using my iPad Air (and now with nano-texture coming more broadly across Apple lines, Daylight is going to have that much more to overcome - because Apple is also cheaper product).
j2kun 2y ago
I mainly use my Remarkable 1 (am I ancient?) for scratch math, with the paper or code I'm reading open on a computer or laptop. So I concur that having both a writing surface and a reading surface is necessary.
UltraSane 2y ago
I have a ReMarkable 2 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab Ultra and they work really well together.
qnleigh 2y ago
Has anyone here tried a dual screen or folding screen laptop like the Lenovo 9i or the X1 fold gen 2? I imagined using them similarly, one screen for reading and one for writing.
- WillAdams 2y ago
  It's nice, but doesn't have the advantages of e-ink. I work similarly to the person in the parent article, but use a mix of devices: - Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 --- running Windows 11 this is used for development and web browsing and art/drawing and 3D modeling and so forth - Kindle Scribe --- ebook reader and notepad --- sometimes will use the web browser for referencing documentation - Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ --- on-the-go usages - Wacom One (gen 1 13 inch stylus display) attached to an Apple MacBook --- affords the ability to draw/annotate The big thing is all 3 devices use the same Wacom EMR stylus technology, so it's seamless switching from one to the other when using a stylus.
openrisk 2y ago
The Paper Pro looks gorgeous, but its specific use case and the closed nature of the platform (despite it being a linux OS) makes it less appealing. It would be nice to have a paper tablet that is, indeed, focused on what it does best, but also seemlessly interoperates with linux laptops and desktops. Users having to juggle multiple closed platforms adds to the cognitive burden.
- codemac 2y ago
  You should check out Supernote. While still a bit closed, it's interop is far superior to Remarkable.
- freedomben 2y ago
  > the closed nature of the platform (despite it being a linux OS) makes it less appealing. Seriously, I really hope some management and/or devs from Remarkable are seeing this. I want to shout it from the roof tops. I bought a Remarkable 2, and I would definitely be buying a Paper Pro, if it were a little more open. I'm appreciative that the device itself isn't locked down (that was enough to sell me a RM2!), but for the kind of money Paper Pro costs I need more out of it. If it was a very open system (like in my wildest dream, all software for it would be fully open source) I would take the plunge. As it stands, I'm leaning more toward the Daylight as it seems more hackable to me. I don't need much, not even a big ecosystem, just the ability to hack on it and/or install homebrew stuff from others. The ability to automate and/or easily run scripts on it would be killer. Please Remarkable, embrace the spirit of openness that I know burns within you. It's a little hidden by conflicting business needs, but I know it's still there! Let those feelings be free, and create the masterpiece that you and I both really want.
jauntywundrkind 2y ago
Some meta-commentary, I'm a little surprised there's just been so little visible progress in broadening computing systems beyond single system. We have cloud that syncs data, but so few systems are designed for more than one computer. It'd be awesome to be able to have a reading/note-taking experience that spanned more than a single system.
chris_wot 2y ago
Try getting the MAC address of the device. It’s not possible! Weird oversight.

120 points by breezykermo 2y ago

How different does it feel to take notes on Rm2 compared to pen and paper? Can you be equally effective on taking handwritten notes on Rm2?

DeepYogurt 2y ago
It's different but gives a similarly nice feel. The surface is a little rough which makes it give a feeling not too dissimilar to that of a chalk board albeit without the chalk. Not sure if that makes sense, but is definitely worth trying if you're curious.
dunefox 2y ago
The pen is octnrtimes really imprecise. Sometimes up to 1-2 mm.
evoke4908 2y ago
It's definitely a different feel, but not bad. It feels like using a particularly smooth ballpoint on some nice heavyweight stationery. I don't find it particularly noticeable or distracting, but I also don't do much handwriting anymore. It has a pleasant amount of drag and has a very slight squishy feel, like if you're writing on a stack of two or three sheets. My problem is that I apparently apply quite a lot of pressure when writing and the nib in the stylus wears out after a few dozen hours. Some people talk about using titanium nibs, but I'd rather burn through nibs than tear up the irreplaceable screen. The handfeel is fantastic. It really is a wonderfully designed object. However, the writing experience is not great. The digitizer is quite simply bad. RM knows about it and seemingly don't care. The digitizer develops random calibration problems and it becomes impossible to accurately put your pen on any specific spot. You absolutely cannot ever continue a stroke after you've lifted the pen. There is no way to recalibrate. The working theory is stray magnetization inside the digitizer, some people claim that dragging a magnet over the screen helps. It also has some nasty quantization issues. Pen strokes are not vectorised and come out inexplicably jagged and aliased. If you are the type of person who can write quickly with very few mistakes, and without constantly looking at the page, you'd probably get good use out of the RM2. For me, I am abysmal at writing like this and the RM just gets in my way. I do use my RM a fair bit, but for my use case, it's far less convenient than a paper notebook. I'm mostly taking research notes and diagramming things. I don't markup PDFs or take longhand meeting notes or anything. Also, having been involved in the RM modding community, I feel pretty gross about ReMarkable the company. The originally billed this as an open, hackable linux device you can run custom software on. They almost immediately backtracked on this and removed the SDK from their website. Someone in the community has to go and individually email RM developers for a new copy of the SDK after each update. Plus the files that store your notes are in a proprietary format. The only way to get them out is to convert to a PDF on the tablet. Generally I recommend you pass on the RM unless you know what you're in for. It's a beautiful device with horrible software and support.
- thimabi 2y ago
  > Pen strokes are not vectorised and come out inexplicably jagged and aliased. That’s something I’ve been experiencing with the Kindle Scribe as well. You can’t zoom in on notebooks in the device, but all PDFs exports contain jagged lines everywhere, no matter how straight I write or draw. I can’t explain why these writing-focused devices get this so wrong… a general-purpose iPad does this so much better.

yzydserd 2y ago

I’ve been doing similar! Study notes on one. Exercise notepad on the other.

skavi 2y ago

The people yearn for the Microsoft Courier [0]. [0]: https://youtu.be/UmIgNfp-MdI https://youtu.be/UmIgNfp-MdI

Multicomp 2y ago
Agreed. I'm still letting the Lenovo Yoga 9i bake another generation or so and then I'm jumping in. Booklet PC! Finally!! There is an Acer product but it does not fold down flat like the lenovo model does.
- WillAdams 2y ago
  I am very much hoping that Samsung will make a Yogabook 9i competitor w/ Wacom EMR.
downrightmike 2y ago
1.3M views 15 years ago
qnleigh 2y ago
I'm looking forward to a non-Windows device that has two screens. Gave up on Windows a while ago, and as much as I love their Surface tablets, I don't think I'll go back.

nxobject 2y ago

It’s worth mentioning that, in Star Trek’s universe, tables were routinely covered in PADDs - not because it’s excessive, but that even with eink the most usable environment was multiple virtual sheets of paper at once.

evoke4908 2y ago
Why is it then that this concept only appears in Trek from before 2005 or so? The modern series barely show PADDs at all. No one uses them like this, and most things are holographic. This is not in any way a commentary on technology or ergonomics. This is 100% an artifact of the show being produced in a time where multiple physical pages on a desk is the only way people knew to operate. It was the only option at the time, so they just used that same concept with a different prop. We didn't have multitasking supercomputers in our pockets when TNG was produced, we had physical books that had to be spread out on a physical surface. Trek is not a prediction of the future, it's just a TV show.
- tolerance 2y ago
  “Realist” media criticism such as this is becoming my favorite form. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42093345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42093345 As well.
- gamblor956 2y ago
  There are PADDs showing up regularly in Discovery, BNW, LD, and Picard. IOW, in all of the ST shows since 2005... In the 13 year hiatus when there was no TV Star Trek, touch phones and tablets became normal. So PADDs were no longer futuristic, and now they're background objects a viewer doesn't even notice. In the case of specific shows, Discovery and Picard are heavily focused on action, so PADDs generally show up less frequently because there are fewer scenes in which it would be natural for them to show up. Contrast to BNW, which is more traditional Star Trek, and the characters are constantly carrying PADDs around. And LD's earlier seasons have several extended gags revolving around PADDs...

exe34 2y ago

when I'm reading something on my pinenote, I often have a copy open on my laptop (or rarely phone) to look at coloured diagrams but also just to refer to figures without having to switch back and forth. I only take notes in emacs though, having realised that my lifelong dream of digital handwritten notes was just a bit less than practical.

Locutus_ 2y ago

I'm a heavy ReMarkable user, mostly as a note taking device when doing client meetings. For personal use I use it a lot for annotating philosophy papers and source materials, and the lack of a split screen feature is extremely frustrating. Writing annotations or commentaries on texts means writing in the margins or switching back and forth between books (often a paper book and the remarkable for writing, or 2 notebooks in the device which is a slow operation). A split screen mode would have been extremely useful, or lacking that a method for having a page-matched 'fold-out' so I can just associate a full blank page to each source page for my commentary. I know there's an unofficial hack that adds this, but why ReMarkable doesn't I can't fathom, especially as annotations and such are marketed as primary use cases for the device. /rant :)

dunefox 2y ago
I find mine close to useless. The pen is sometimes really inconsistent, to the point where the ink gets applied 1mm from the pen tip. Also, no canvas for pdf annotation, no split screen, no search in pdfs and notes, only tags, etc. It's strictly worse than paper for me.
- WillAdams 2y ago
  That is likely a problem with that specific stylus --- have you tried a different stylus?
- turtlebits 2y ago
  Have you contacted support? I've had one for over 4 years (and used up 2 packs of nibs) and it writes perfectly, and much prefer it over the iPad.
parasense 2y ago
Hi Locutus_ I'm one of those people with "analysis paralysis" towards the E-Ink ecosystem. Remarkable Paper Pro came out while I was researching, and made me aware of the set of dichotomies around the notion of minimalism vs full blow Android, black & white only tablets vs Galery-3 vs Kaliedo, front lights vs having a screen closer to the surface without front lights... It's difficult to enter the e-paper market. For me, I'm a science student currently struggling through classes like Integral Calculus, Linear Angebra, etc... So I'm usually writing math equations. My first question is how does Remarkable handle math writing? I'm guessing there is nothing to read things like a handwritten Sumation, or Integral, and then convert to Tex ? Is black and White really the best kind of e-ink, or is that the prejudice or bias of those old time e-ink users who have been using the tech a while now? What about screen size, is the 10.3 really that great (smaller that A4 paper)? Is Remarkable's "minimalism" claims actually legitimate, or more of a coping mechanism to explain away their apparent lack of features?

nunez 2y ago

I haven't been as excited about technology in a very long time as I have upon discovering eInk devices this year. Most of my Internet usage is skimfeed/Hacker News and the occasional jaunt on Reddit. I've also gotten back into books given how parasitic the Internet has become writ large. The iPad Pro is overkill for this use case, and its screen is harsh on the eyes (unless you use it in what I call "red mode", i.e. dark mode with a 100% red filter overlay). Given this, I wanted an eReader that I could read articles on the Internet with. The Kindle nails the first part, but its web browser sucks all sorts of shit. Enter the BOOX Go Color 7. This thing is exactly what I wanted: a super-capable eReader that's easy on the eyes and small enough to fit in my bum bag. It sucks at videos and is kind of slow, which makes it a slam dunk for my narrow use case. This inspired me to get a reMarkable 2 for keeping track of customer notes (I'm a sales engineer at the moment) and journal my work when I'm hacking on stuff. Loads of people have gushed over how much better this is than an iPad for writing; they are 100% correct. Having a paper feel is everything. No good solutions exist for this on an iPad, but it's totally possible with eInk displays. The rM2 inspired me even further to ditch my iOS weightlifting journal app (Strong) for a Go Color 10.3. I've used all sorts of apps for this purpose over the years (Google Sheets, then JEFIT, then Hevy, then Strong). Since there isn't an open standard for weightlifting logs (lol; can you imagine), all of these have different data schemas that you need to normalize yourself. Gigantic pain in the ass. For this reason, logging reps and sets is so much easier on paper, but I hated keeping track of paper notebooks. This is the perfect replacement. No futzing around on an app, and I can leave my phone at home. It spends nearly 0% battery when its off and barely anything when its on. I can put this in a soft case and leave it in my gym bag for weeks at a time. I even have Kindle and Firefox on this too so I can read books during rest periods. It's incredible. These days, my iPad Pro is only good for being a HDMI and macOS Sidecar monitor. Yes, Onyx refuses to comply with the GPL and has super duper shady stuff pre-installed in their BOOX devices. ONYX is also the only manufacturer that's putting serious money into this niche. Root them, install AFWall+, install AdAway, don't connect your Google account; problem solved. (One last positive I'll mention for the reMarkable: the RM1 and RM2 come with SSH and are rooted out of the box. It even uses systemd to run Xochitl, its frontend. You can hack the living daylights out of these things if you're into that.)

breezykermo 2y ago

ganoushoreilly 2y ago

I just returned my ReMarkable Pro. I found that split screen was something I wanted and though I had a work around with using my iPad much like Op here, it wasn't ideal. The big nail in the coffin for me was difficulty integrating into my workflow / application stack. I had to use a couple scripts I hacked together to get the data from ReMarkable into the tools I use regularly. For the cost Invested I decided it was just too much. The tech wasn't bad, I was impressed with the build quality, and I think there is a market, without a Jailbreak / easy integration it's just not for me at this time. Bummer.

CrazyStat 2y ago
My Boox e-ink tablet has a split screen mode that I use regularly, but I wouldn’t use it on full page (A4/US letter) sized pdfs like journal articles as the text would be too small.
- thereticent 2y ago
  I chose the Boox over ReMarkable 2 for that reason and the color display. In split-screen, I pretty quickly got used to zooming in on a column or full body width and dragging the PDF around to read it. I guess it's not perfect, but still better than paper or traditional screen for me
ricardobeat 2y ago
What was your intended use for the split screen? It sounds like you wanted a tablet with an e-ink screen, which the Remarkable is ostensibly not. I bought my R2 originally with the same mindset, of jailbreaking it to run custom apps, but ended up loving it for what it is: the best and most expensive reading and note-taking device in our era :)
- ganoushoreilly 2y ago
  Primarily i'm looking for the ability to open various pdfs in a pane, and then have a nice section to write notes, reference those PDFs etc. It's probably doable with some process changes, I just didn't have the time for them. Post Christmas I may give it another shot.

bloopernova 2y ago

I am so disappointed in Amazon for their 1st gen Kindle Scribe. Part of the selling point was being able to write notes by hand, but the only method to get your notes off the Scribe is to email yourself a PDF. Large size screen is nice for reading though.

thimabi 2y ago
Even worse: if you send the PDF back to the Scribe, all previously-written notes are uneditable. It seems note taking is treated more like an afterthought. Of course, this means I only use my Scribe as a scratchpad for disposable notes.
oso2k 2y ago
100+ The notes organization is awkward, imports/exports are not durable (as another poster mentioned), had several exports fail, and then the only method of export is email. Definitely felt like a device meant for reading ebooks and writing comes a distant second. But the screen and the backlight are far better than the RM2 as is the battery life. For me writing notes daily, I had to stick with the RM2 though.

aebtebeten 2y ago

compare https://xkcd.com/1988/ https://xkcd.com/1988/

vtail 2y ago

After a few days of using Daylight Computer, I have to admit that it solves all the pain points I had with Remarkable 2: - 60 FPS screen makes a huge difference in reading experience, especially if you want to flip through a PDF quickly - It's an Android tablet, meaning that I can use my usual programs and don't have an awkward "how do I bring it to Remarkable and back" process The downsides: - It's $729 vs $379 for the Remarkable 2 - It's heavier However, I'm not going back.

JoshTriplett 2y ago
How's the quality of the stylus? Have you found good software for handwriting, both in general and atop existing documents?
- vtail 2y ago
  I think it's a standard Wacom stylus. I like it overall, the writing is pretty fluid.
- vtail 2y ago
  For hand-writing, I just use the provided tools (Notebook and Reader). Notebook is OK, Reader is interesting but glitchy (it's their own software I think), but I'm sure Android ecosystem has solved these problems already - I just didn't yet feel the need to invest my time in discovering the best tools.
tiffanyh 2y ago
I just returned my Daylight. I found it: - oddly heavy, the Daylight is made of all plastic (body & screen) - yet it’s heavier than an iPad Air made from metal & glass. - handwriting lag, the input lags when I use the pen is so much that it distracts me while writing a sentence. I have to concentrate to ensure it’s keeping up with each letter I write. No such lag exists with my iPad Air. - no setup instructions or tutorial on its unique gestures. You boot it up and have to figure out how it works and getting it on WiFi - display resolution is much worse than I was expecting. - when using chrome, webpages render incredibly small. I’m having to constantly zoom in. There’s a setting in chrome about “desktop mode” but it made no difference. And I also wasn’t expecting to have to sign up for a Google account to even get software updates, even from Daylight. (Maybe I don’t but that’s what the Google App Store made it seem like). Wish I had read this review before I had bought it. https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/20/24201356/daylight-computer-dc-1-hands-on https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/20/24201356/daylight-compute... * Note: I truly love the idea of Daylight, and hope they succeed. But in my mind, a considerable device improvement needs to be made to realize that vision. Until then, I’ll revert back to using my iPad Air (and now with nano-texture coming more broadly across Apple lines, Daylight is going to have that much more to overcome - because Apple is also cheaper product).

j2kun 2y ago

I mainly use my Remarkable 1 (am I ancient?) for scratch math, with the paper or code I'm reading open on a computer or laptop. So I concur that having both a writing surface and a reading surface is necessary.

UltraSane 2y ago

I have a ReMarkable 2 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab Ultra and they work really well together.

qnleigh 2y ago

Has anyone here tried a dual screen or folding screen laptop like the Lenovo 9i or the X1 fold gen 2? I imagined using them similarly, one screen for reading and one for writing.

WillAdams 2y ago
It's nice, but doesn't have the advantages of e-ink. I work similarly to the person in the parent article, but use a mix of devices: - Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 --- running Windows 11 this is used for development and web browsing and art/drawing and 3D modeling and so forth - Kindle Scribe --- ebook reader and notepad --- sometimes will use the web browser for referencing documentation - Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ --- on-the-go usages - Wacom One (gen 1 13 inch stylus display) attached to an Apple MacBook --- affords the ability to draw/annotate The big thing is all 3 devices use the same Wacom EMR stylus technology, so it's seamless switching from one to the other when using a stylus.

openrisk 2y ago

The Paper Pro looks gorgeous, but its specific use case and the closed nature of the platform (despite it being a linux OS) makes it less appealing. It would be nice to have a paper tablet that is, indeed, focused on what it does best, but also seemlessly interoperates with linux laptops and desktops. Users having to juggle multiple closed platforms adds to the cognitive burden.

codemac 2y ago
You should check out Supernote. While still a bit closed, it's interop is far superior to Remarkable.
freedomben 2y ago
> the closed nature of the platform (despite it being a linux OS) makes it less appealing. Seriously, I really hope some management and/or devs from Remarkable are seeing this. I want to shout it from the roof tops. I bought a Remarkable 2, and I would definitely be buying a Paper Pro, if it were a little more open. I'm appreciative that the device itself isn't locked down (that was enough to sell me a RM2!), but for the kind of money Paper Pro costs I need more out of it. If it was a very open system (like in my wildest dream, all software for it would be fully open source) I would take the plunge. As it stands, I'm leaning more toward the Daylight as it seems more hackable to me. I don't need much, not even a big ecosystem, just the ability to hack on it and/or install homebrew stuff from others. The ability to automate and/or easily run scripts on it would be killer. Please Remarkable, embrace the spirit of openness that I know burns within you. It's a little hidden by conflicting business needs, but I know it's still there! Let those feelings be free, and create the masterpiece that you and I both really want.

jauntywundrkind 2y ago

Some meta-commentary, I'm a little surprised there's just been so little visible progress in broadening computing systems beyond single system. We have cloud that syncs data, but so few systems are designed for more than one computer. It'd be awesome to be able to have a reading/note-taking experience that spanned more than a single system.

chris_wot 2y ago

Try getting the MAC address of the device. It’s not possible! Weird oversight.