
The ReMarkable E Ink Tablet - curtis
https://gizmodo.com/the-remarkable-e-ink-tablet-is-way-too-good-for-its-sof-1822612517
======
lima
Some cool facts about the device from a hacker point of view:

\- Main developer/CTO is a KDE dev and very open source-friendly.

\- You get root access to the device out of the box.

\- The device is running a mainline kernel with minimal patches, which have a
good chance at being upstreamed[1].

\- The toolchain is open[2]. They use vanilla QT/QML and people have already
built simple example apps.

\- There's an unofficial Linux client which works just fine.

\- Desktop client and device run the same code, so you can just sync the files
locally without connecting the device to the internet. Works both ways (it's
the setup I use).

[1]:
[https://github.com/reMarkable/linux](https://github.com/reMarkable/linux)
[2]: [https://remarkable.engineering](https://remarkable.engineering)

Community:

[https://reddit.com/r/remarkabletablet](https://reddit.com/r/remarkabletablet)

[https://discordapp.com/channels/385916768696139794/385921743...](https://discordapp.com/channels/385916768696139794/385921743522627595)

[https://github.com/reHackable](https://github.com/reHackable)

~~~
reacweb
IMHO, these are important features. It seems it does not have Bluetooth (for a
keyboard and/or headset to listen to mp3 while reading) and the battery can
not be easily replaced.

~~~
jsiepkes
Because its meant as an pen and paper replacement. Nothing more, nothing less.

Besides why would you want to listen to MP3s on such a device? Your smartphone
with bluetooth and microphone jack is way better equiped for such a thing.

~~~
m-p-3
I still wish it was slightly more than that. If I could read my emails on that
thing instead of my violet screen, I'd consider it for work.

~~~
thaumaturgy
_No_.

I own one. I've had mine since last November. I love it. I love it in large
part because when I'm working on it, I -can't- read email, browse HN, read
blogs, check on a server. The only thing I can do is put thoughts to words and
diagrams.

What you want is a tablet, maybe something from Amazon. The ReMarkable is
intended for a different audience, people who remember what it's like to be
undistracted and want that again.

~~~
wvenable
For $600 it better do more than that. If I wanted something to write on that
does nothing else I'd just use a pad of actual paper. And that's the real
competition for a device like this -- paper.

I think it would need to come down in price significantly for it to be just
what you want it to be.

~~~
thaumaturgy
I have put a few hundred pages of notes through this thing since I've had it.
That's a lot of paper I don't really want to carry around. I have old
notebooks, binders, loose-leaf collections of everything from letters to
myriad projects to random musings.

My notes on this are organized into folders. When I'm at a SAR meeting, I tap
"SAR", and there's everything from the last meeting and training notes and
anything else I might want to reference.

When I'm at work, I tap "[Job]", and there's the graphs, notes, and complex as
hell SQL and database layouts and everything else I've been working on lately.

I don't have to scribble out sentences from pen and paper, instead I can
neatly erase them from the screen and rewrite them. It has become my tool of
choice for first draft, second draft, third draft, and final draft writing to
people I care to write to.

When I'm working out a flow chart or application logic or something else that
I'm struggling to get my head around and ordinarily would run to paper for, I
use this instead, because when I need to reorganize different bits I can just
draw a circle around them and drag them elsewhere on the screen.

And, after doing all of this, I can back all of that up to my laptop.

Go ahead and do that with your pad of actual paper, I'll wait while you find a
scanner and fight to get the stupid paper feeder to work.

If the thought of being unplugged and focused on a single thing doesn't
exhilarate you, if it terrifies you, that's fine, this isn't the device to
you. I'm not going to cheer it on to those folks; frankly, at this point, I
hope ReMarkable is able to avoid that audience, because they're going to ask
for all the wrong things.

But I don't spend a lot of money and when I first saw this thing I immediately
wanted it because it's exactly what I've been wishing for, for a long time
now. Ever since the Newton, at least. It's valuable at that price to me and to
a lot of other people.

~~~
plasticchris
Type what you can, draw diagrams on white boards or paper and take pictures of
what you can't. Very simple and cheap workflow.

~~~
thaumaturgy
Help me out here: what's a polite way to ask you why you think I'm such an
idiot that that never occurred to me?

------
igorkraw
I have this device, and for hackers, this review misses some stuff:

* the company behind it is based in norway, so you can be pretty sure the techies got treated well

* they abide by the GPL very well

* by connecting via USB and flicking a switch in the options menu, you get SSH access, as well as a REST endpoint where you can upload your files via curl. So if you don't like their cloud offering, you can turn of wifi and be sure your data is local

* I _really_ hope they start a good opensource community program. There are already efforts underway for hacking on this, and in theory making custom applications for this could be very fun

* last I saw, some of the developers are active on reddit and HN, so I hope they comment on the last point

~~~
moon4u
Is the response time really that fast? On my e-reader, it takes solid 1 second
in the best case (and sometimes more than 3s worst) to switch a page. This
device looks really fast. But maybe it's just updating small region and that's
why it's so fast?

~~~
TuringTest
The response time is optimized for writing, not reading. This device is better
treated as a whiteboard than an ebook.

Switching pages can still take a few seconds (the display is lightning fast,
but the processor for generating the page is not).

~~~
otoburb
>> _Switching pages can still take a few seconds (the display is lightning
fast, but the processor for generating the page is not)._ *

Can _take up to_ a few seconds, but really depends on what the device is
rendering. For most arXiv papers and light graphics (e.g. clean charts) the
page turns have been very tolerable.

------
dalbasal
Nice. I'd like to see e-ink continue to develop.

What _I_ want is an e-ink laptop with simple but good word processing, coding,
text-mostly browsing, emails and such.

I like my reader. It doesn't feel like "device" and I'm much more relaxed
using it. Im on my third one and all three were on airplane mode since the day
I bought them. Reading on tablet/phone triggers my hyperactive "device mode".
Checking emails, hn, tinder, contol-tab, notifications, Twitter, youtube...
Not good before bed. e-ink just lends to relaxed focus, for me. The battery
life also helps me forget it's a device.

An e-ink laptop built for working on stuff with fewer distractions, 20+ hrs
battery life, decent text editing and word processing, emails... I want.

~~~
JasonFruit
I've actually been working on something of this sort with a battery-powered
Raspberry PI running Debian and a Pervasive 7-inch e-Paper display. I whipped
up a pretty decent prototype that had a terminal (so, Emacs, w3m, newsbeuter,
etc.), PDF reader, and rough support for keyboard-driven X apps, but then my
little girl got to the wiring with scissors, and my momentum died. (It also
had a small character LED display to show rapid feedback while typing.)

The last few days I've been working on a new version of the software, and I
think I'll wire it back up. If I get it clean enough for others to use, I'll
write it up.

~~~
willcodeforfoo
Looking forward to more information about this as well. I'm thinking about
wiring up an e-Paper display to a Pi for some digital signage applications and
curious how you got it all to work, and the prices for doing so!

~~~
JasonFruit
I used a 7.4" display from Pervasive, about $50USD. It's a simple development
board with an easy to drive controller. All the software was in Python, with a
few performance-critical bits in Cython. I used wire wrapping to hook things
up, and it was not difficulty, even though I'm a programmer with no previous
hardware experience.

------
janus01
So there are some positive and negative comments here, I'd like to throw in my
opinion as someone who backed it and currently owns one.

\- Hardware is ok. Not super comfortable to hold.

\- Pen works alright, however my goal was to use it to annotate PDFs and
software issues got in the way.

\- Software is absolutely awful. It's unstable, slow, and updates are slow to
come.

\- Crashes regularly when reading and annotating PDFs.

\- Loading epubs is hit-and-miss. I have some that work alright, some that
fail to load entirely. Changing pages is slow.

\- Frequently fails to save your place in a document when it goes to sleep. If
you're able to get it working for a few hours reading session, you might come
back later to find that your progress is gone. Getting back to where you were
is painfully slow.

\- Support is not good. I submitted a ticket with my concerns in October, got
response in January. Return period expired while I was waiting for a response.

\- Battery life is merely passable.

edit: To conclude, I think that if I were to do this again I would either get
an iPad or a Kindle Oasis (would have to try both to determine just how
important e-ink is compared to a high dpi LCD). Either would be cheaper than
the Remarkable, and you can buy a pretty sweet pen and a lifetime supply of
paper with the remaining money. The iPad would probably be better for large-
format PDFs, but since a lot of those have some pretty hefty margins I could
probably preprocess PDFs with a script to trim them for better viewing on a
Kindle.

------
effyx
I have been using it since November (second preorder wave).

Pros: The e-ink display is great, large enough to show one page of any pdf.
The device is light. Taking notes feels good. Battery life is great for
reading books, good for taking notes.

Cons: Price. In-house cloud storage that you must use (there is a beta setting
enabling some weird tunnel over usb, have not tried it yet ...). Apps you must
use in order to transfer document onto device (Windows, iOS, Android only).
All your documents are automatically backed up and synced once you are on a
wi-fi, whether you like it or not. No apps ... there is not even a web browser
and there is no way of installing anything. Because the controls are on the
bottom, the reading experience is not as good as with Kindle. Round pencil
tends to roll around.

Many of the cons are software related and could be fixed. But there is no way
of telling, whether they will be fixed.

At the end of the day, I do not regret getting it.

~~~
ptman
There is a linux app, but the link was taken away from
[https://remarkable.engineering/](https://remarkable.engineering/) . You can
download it from [https://remarkable.engineering/remarkable-linux-
client-0.0.5...](https://remarkable.engineering/remarkable-linux-
client-0.0.5-16-1408-g7eca2b66.tgz)

~~~
sdfojlkjaew
This client only works with some version of Debian. I am using flatpak
[https://flathub.org/apps/](https://flathub.org/apps/)

and it works (flatpak run com.remarkable.reMarkable )

It takes about 400Mb since it downloads many libraries.

------
klunger
My friend has one and I got to try it a couple weeks ago. The writing
experience is as fantastic as the article describes. But, the rendering of
screens is slow and you have to look at bizarro artifacts for a second or two
before a new screen is shown. This is... not great. But, I am guessing this
can be improved on in future versions. I am waiting for a better/cheaper model
to come out, but fully intend to get one when it does.

edit: clarity

~~~
mattmanser
I can see that disappearing quickly as it did between 1st and 2nd gen kindle.
On my paperwhite it's now completely un-noticeable most of the time, there's
only a few operations that have some lag.

I'm tempted to buy one, but know how frustrated I get with bad UIs, so might
hold off until the next gen.

~~~
thaumaturgy
FWIW I'm a fellow UI-grouch, but haven't hated anything about it enough to
outweigh everything else I love about it. The funky screen redraw is just a
brief thing and doesn't really get in my way.

The only UI thing that makes me scowl so far is that sometimes my pen settings
inexplicably get reset.

~~~
mattmanser
I am very tempted then, presently I have 5 different notebooks for different
things and doing a couple of courses which I've started to study like I did at
university and take written notes instead of just passively consuming.

The general consensus is that you learn better if you write but it's
frustrating to not have the notes digitized and backed up.

It sounds like it might be good.

------
zachruss92
I purchased the remarkable and was really disappointed. I ended up returning
it. Ultimately, if i'm spending $700 for a writing tablet (after accessories),
it has to work as described. Some of the deal breaking issues:

\- Battery lasts for hours, not days. \- Mobile apps are buggy, viewing notes
caused them to crash \- Randomly stops responding to pen \- Randomly freezes
up \- Customer support takes weeks to respond \- Ereader experience is
horrible (no bookmarks, table of contents, etc) \- UI really needs
improvements (pen style settings aren't retained)

~~~
thaumaturgy
The only one of those I could corroborate is the pen style settings issue,
which occasionally irritates me too.

Price: I won't argue it's expensive and if it isn't scratching an itch you've
had for a long time then it might not be worth it. Mine has provided that much
value to me since I bought it, and I figure I'm paying a little extra for
early access anyway (and hopefully supporting a technology that will stick
around for a while).

Battery: I can see it lasting for only hours under heavy, constant use, but
I've found that I only need to charge mine about once a week and I use it
daily. I'm just not drawing or doodling on it constantly, so mostly it sits
idle next to me and is interrupted every once in a while for a quick note.

Apps: I haven't used any of the mobile apps for it because that defeats its
purpose (for me).

Pen response: has been perfect for me so far. This makes me wonder if you had
a glitchy or buggy device.

Freezing up: I've seen this happen twice, I think, since November, and in my
case the device locked up for several seconds and then rebooted itself, which
I thought was pretty cool (a hell of a lot better job than KDE on Debian 9). I
didn't lose any work, even though both times I was using it when it happened.

Customer support: haven't had to deal with them, but I'm not surprised at the
lack of response. That seems to be a trend over the last several years. Nobody
does customer support anymore.

Ereader: Ashamed to admit I haven't tried using this feature on it yet, just
haven't got around to it.

------
ChuckMcM
Back when the first Kindle came out I felt like this would be the future. I
bought an iRex Illiad 2[1], it had really everything you wanted, open source,
wacom stylus, and reasonable PPI (180). But it was expensive and it couldn't
compete without decent software and its screen was pretty delicate (a lot of
busted ones out there). I had hoped that the folks at Plastic Logic would fix
that with their QUE Reader[2]but sadly it failed to materialize.

Today I find the drawing experience on the Surface Pro 4 to be the best I've
been able to find, rather than make the glass the answer they made the tip the
answer (for writing/drawing feel). I rank the iPad Pro (current edition)
second, and I'm not sure if I'm able to get past the frustration of the great
platform/no software hump that I had on the Illiad to try the reMarkable
tablet. About once every 3 months I look at it :-).

What all of this has done for me is give me a tremendous amount of respect for
the problem of simulating drawing. Even with a special ASIC in the SP4 it's
not quite lag free.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILiad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILiad)

[2] [http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/plastic-logic.html](http://www.the-ebook-
reader.com/plastic-logic.html)

~~~
pge
I also use a surface pro for note taking. The glass isnt the best writing
surface, but it’s fine. What really sets it apart for me is the handwriting
recognition. My handwriting is not super neat but the Microsft recognition
software makes very few mistakes converting it to text. Being able to take
notes with a stylus during a meeting and then converting to a searchable text
is the beat of both worlds

------
jakozaur
I used to have Kindle DX, but today there is no bigger sized Kindle. I wonder
why. Feels like regression to me.

Remarkable got huge potential, but needs better integration with ebook stores
(e.g. Amazon), OCR and Apps. Price is excusable for 1st gen, but probably too
high for mass market.

~~~
ppod
I got the Kobo Aura One which is 7.8 inch. Kobo has nice integration with the
Pocket bookmarking app. Does anyone else have the Kobo Aura One and have
opinions on it? I'm happy enough with it so far but not sure if it was quite
value for money.

~~~
deng
The Kobo Aura One is a bit on the expensive side, but the display is excellent
(300dpi), so in the end I think it's worth it, especially if you also care
about the waterproofing. I also happen to like the "natural light" very much,
as I'm often reading in the dark, although it's a bit uneven at the edges. I'm
not very happy with the default software ("Nickel"), but fortunately the
device is very hack-friendly (no jailbreaking needed), so you can easily
install Dropbear (=ssh server) and KoReader, which IMHO is the real killer app
for any E-Reader. I would _never_ buy any e-ink device which does not run
KoReader.

------
nudpiedo
It looks promising, I hope it will be the begin of a new era of gadgets with
less cognitive load...

Does anyone know whether the software is user friendly? E.g. cloud
integration, doesn't require to install shitty software, can email documents,
etc...

Is it hacker friendly? And perhaps write a small app for it (terminal viewer).

I wish I could try it in Europe (Germany, Spain or France...)

~~~
hueving
I want the opposite. No cloud dependencies.

Always-connected is a plague on modern computing that has ruined the
experience for anyone with slow computers and/or unreliable networks. If you
proposed a 3MB web page with 300ms API calls for every action and called that
a replacement for an app for anyone with an unreliable/heavily metered
connection you would be laughed out of the room. Yet that's the status quo of
'modern stacks'.

It's eye-opening how useless a $1000 smartphone is in the middle of the
outback, in the Yukon, etc. We've regressed to dumb terminals with the cost of
decentralized computers.

~~~
blub
The Sony DPT-RP1 is a large e-ink reading device that works offline, but it's
not available in Europe, just Japan and US.

And of course they're getting some poor reviews for not having some bullshit
cloud sync.

Edit: I've heard Sony takes some privacy liberties with their EULA, so check
that and maybe block their desktop app from connecting to the internet.

~~~
PeCaN
As of a few years ago the DPT-RP1 isn't even available in the US anymore, only
Japan.

------
Major_Grooves
I've got one too. I take most of my notes in notebooks but would end up with
loads of notes that I would never refer to again and I couldn't be bothered
uploading to Evernote.

I got this 100% in the assumption that hand-writing recognition will come
eventually. Or maybe some kind of link to Evernote so they can do that bit.

Funny the review mentions the battery life being good - it's really not as
good as was expected, and is probably the #1 complaint on social media (man, I
feel sorry for their social media team).

Also the slow startup time is a bit irritating.

~~~
dkarl
A good Evernote app would persuade me to buy this device. Otherwise I'd be
more inclined to get a cheap Kindle and only use it as an e-reader.

------
dcchambers
Really glad to see ReMarkable getting some love. E-ink is such a promising
technology. I pre-ordered this and overall have been thrilled with it. I've
loved my Kindle for years but had always wanted a device big enough to read
full-size Magazines, textbooks, and letter-sized PDFs. This device allows me
to do that. The hardware is fantastic, most of my complaints are on the
software side of things. With how open-source friendly the company is I have
confidence the software quirks will be fixed (either officially or
unofficially). I didn't originally think I would write on it that much - but
the writing experience is fantastic...far better than what you get on a glass
screen (iPad, surface pro, etc).

I hope this device continues to remind people that E-ink has a future. If the
technology can continue to advance - I think someday we could have e-ink
displays to use for software development/writing...which would be an absolute
dream.

------
radarsat1
I hope this is good, or that they are working on making it better. I love
e-ink, far prefer it to reading on my phone, but the last 2 devices I've had
have had terrible software, eventually been discontinued, and in any case, the
screens have broken. I get the impression e-ink is much more fragile than an
LCD, but maybe it's just a question of the build. I've dropped my Huawei many
times without breaking it, and although I've seen many iPhones with broken
glass, the display and touch input generally remains usable.. on my e-ink
devices, in one case a bit of water completely destroyed it, in the other
case, I don't know what happened but I took it out of my backpack and it was
busted, so it must have been a small shock, as I didn't drop the bag or
anything. I'd buy another e-ink device in a heartbeat, but it had better be
solid because they aren't cheap.

------
jay-anderson
This looks good and feels like the larger screen e ink devices are getting
better. Unfortunately I haven't found one which ticks the boxes I want (mostly
to use for sheet music):

\- Hands free page turning (a bluetooth foot pedal would be idea) \- Large
size (at least as large as a4 paper). \- Split screen page turn (That is do a
page turn in two steps: (1) show the top of the next screen and the bottom of
the current (2) show all of the next page) \- Cross platform file transfer (I
use linux and mac and would like to be able to transfer files from both) \- No
cloud services for document storage (I want to keep everything locally)

This device is a bit smaller than I want. The Sony dpt-rp1 is close, but it
doesn't support bluetooth foot pedals or cross platform file transfer (I'm not
sure why they're crippling their devices).

~~~
oever
Fellow musician here can confirm that two step page turns is very nice and
easy to implement feature to have.

The device seems great for adding notes to sheet music.

------
JepZ
Sometimes I wonder what happened to the display class which was built into the
Notion Ink Adam: Some kind of an LCD, e-ink hybrid. When the backlight was
enabled it had colors and when you disabled it, it became an e-ink display of
some sort.

While the result was a display which neither had good colors nor a perfect
e-ink experience, I found it had some practical advantages, as you never had
problems using the display: In bright sun light you had the e-ink display and
if you wanted to watch a movie in the dark you had the LCD.

Overall the displays quality was far away from what we have today, but the
tablet was released in early 2011 so quite some time ago in terms of display
technology. At the time it was trying to compete with the iPad, but had
several problems in the process which resulted in many dissatisfied customers.

~~~
jecel
That display was originally created for the One Laptop Per Child project and
then was sold commercially by a spin off company:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi)

It got designed into a couple of product, like the Norton Ink, and was also
sold as a replacement screen for existing laptops (you might still be able to
buy a kit). Sadly, it was not successful enough to continue.

~~~
aembleton
Ah, so it can switch between transreflective and reflective. The Amazfit Pace
(see my previous comment) is transreflective but it has a backlight which I
guess might make it reflective.

------
tjoff
That some people prefer an iPad to eink for reading absolutely blows my mind.
I'm still annoyed that the iPad killed practically killed the eink market,
such waste.

If this thing is half as good as I hope it is I'm going to buy it, despite the
quite hefty price. I still can't come up with a use-case for a tablet but this
I'd use constantly.

------
nicolashahn
Is this currently my best option for reading black and white PDFs that are
formatted for 8.5"x11" paper?

~~~
ReaderReader
What do you think about the Sony DPT-RP1?

~~~
jmiserez
I have the DPT-RP1, and it's fantastic for reading things in A4 or letter
format like articles and papers. The best things about it are the large size
and the extremely light weight, which makes it both easy to read and hold.

Highlighting works great as it detects lines of text and can select even over
multiple lines (the Remarkable doesn't do that). Writing quick
annotations/notes with the pen works fine, but it's not pressure sensitive and
the writing looks quite bad compared to real paper.

Long PDFs or books are hit and miss: There is no table of contents view and no
support for anything besides PDFs. So you can't put e-books on it without
converting to PDF first, and if you need to jump around in a (technical) book
the lack of a table of contents or overview is very inconvenient. If you read
through from A-Z then it's ok.

All in all it works great in replacing printer paper, but not so much in
replacing your paper notepad.

There's no actual official announcement, but the lack of table of contents and
a few small other things will probably be fixed by the upcoming firmware
update, once it's actually released.

The DPT-RP1 really shines as a paper/article-reading and annotating device,
but I wouldn't recommend it outside of that use case.

------
cousin_it
I have a theory that media addictions happen in large part because screens are
more shiny and colorful than reality. If that's true, e-ink only phones and
laptops could be a big help against procrastination. (But also probably lead
to fewer ad clicks, so beware of incentives for manufacturers!)

------
chaz6
I am so happy I pre-ordered one of these. It is by far the best e-ink tablet I
have used for handwriting, and it is light enough to take with me everywhere.

------
nicodjimenez
Paper is just one of those things where everyone thinks they know what they
want to use instead, but who really knows! Maybe what we all want is smart
glasses to record and transcribe everything we write onto physical paper /
surfaces. I can also see the appeal of a device that facilitates both writing
and reading, but the issue is that computers (desktops / laptops) are already
so damn good at this.

------
collyw
We have almost reached pen and paper functionality and usability for a mere
$600.

~~~
TuringTest
Call me when your pen and paper supports layers, copy/paste, drag & rotate and
zooming.

~~~
collyw
Take a photo of it on the phone and it does those.

~~~
cdancette
and how much is your phone worth ?

~~~
collyw
160 euros new. So maybe half of that after 6 months of use.

------
jaclaz
As a side-side note, and just for the record, in 1993 existed (I had one) the
Compaq Concerto, using the Windows for Pen Computing (a spin-off of Windows
3.1):

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto)

My model was a 486Sx 33 Mhz with a whopping 8 MB Ram (default was 4 MB)

I could have written more or less the same review at the time, nice (doing
what at the time was more like "magic" or "science fiction" than anything
else) it would have needed a more powerful processor, need (better) character
recognition, sold for a VERY steep price [1], etc.

At least it needed not a stupid proprietary cloud, it was compatible with most
if not all existing software, doubled as a "normal" laptop.

[1] The cost was if I recall correctly around 4,000,000 Italian Lire, roughly
2,000 Euros which at the time was like 3 months salary of a worker.

EDIT: Clear slip of the fingers, it was 8 MB and 4 MB, I wrote GB originally

~~~
djrogers
> At least it needed not a stupid proprietary cloud,

As has been pointed out many times here, this does not require a 'stupid
proprietary cloud' either.

~~~
jaclaz
>As has been pointed out many times here, this does not require a 'stupid
proprietary cloud' either.

Let me rephrase "needed not" with "came not with a default", and allow me to
doubt that a "common user" (or if you prefer "non-hacker" will be able to
change the settings/whatever that this (otherwise nice) E-Ink device ships
with.

------
dmix
This sounds like the perfect GTD/TODO list device!

> but what isn’t great is annotating an epub file and then changing its
> display font or font size. The text will automatically adjust its flow and
> move around to fit the screen, but your annotations won’t, leaving them
> misplaced and out of context.

No way, that's such a big oversight.

That said, I'm totally buying one of these when they do the next major version
bump and hopefully address the above issue and ideally double CPU speeds, as
the lag mentioned when writing non-cursive is equally an unacceptable UX IMO.

I also absolutely love my Kindle's and have for years. I don't know how the
author can have a preference for reading books on a bright iPad. It must not
be something he does daily as I do.

The other great benefit of the reMarkable is the support for ePub documents.
This is the biggest annoyance with using the Kindle, I've had to convert
hundreds of ePub->Kindle using Calibre over the years.

------
tzs
I wish that people who reviewed devices with handwriting support would include
some pictures showing math writing. Throw in an electronics schematic diagram
or two, also.

I want to know how well the thing works as a STEM writing scratchpad. If it
can handle math and electronics reasonably well, that should be sufficient for
most STEM.

~~~
bjourne
Same here. I asked about exactly that a few months ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15544996](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15544996)

Math writing needs a much higher resolution than ordinary text. For example if
you are writing 2^2^2 the last 2 is really small. You also need a larger
surface area so that you can draw diagrams and layout your calculations
exactly as you want. I haven't tried ReMarkable myself, but from what I've
heard, for math it is not quite there yet.

~~~
tzs
I've been reasonably happy with my Surface Pro 4 for math, using OneNote. I do
occasionally zoom in when writing something with more than one level of
superscript or subscript, but it is responsive enough that zooming in or out
is not overly annoying.

I'd be happier with a lighter device, though.

------
funkaster
I also own this (I got it in the second batch). So far I really like it. I use
it to take notes in every meeting, I'm rsync-ing the device with my computer
to keep backups.

For me it solved the big problem of: quickly take notes and be able to access
them later. I used to keep random pieces of paper here and there and notebooks
that I just kept loosing.

Using the laptop is a no-no for me in meetings (we're trying a no-devices in
meetings) and this is basically just a notebook.

For taking dev notes, I keep using orgmode. But for meetings and day-to-day
notes, the remarkable is by far my favorite gadget. I would only change a few
minor glitches with the UI, but so far I'm pleased with it.

------
whatever_dude
Been using mine since the first batch went out and it's a great replacement
for paper, for notes.

The one thing that annoys me is the battery life (about 6 hours of more or
less continuous use). So during a work day I end up having to keep it
permanently connected while at my desk (easier than charging at odd times). I
understand why it's not as energy cheap as just an e-ink reader, but what
annoys me is that they obviously decided to sacrifice battery size to make it
light. The result is that the device is almost _too_ light and thin.

I'd take twice the weight for more battery life.

------
hardlianotion
I have one of these. The writing surface is much better than I expected. The
battery life is surprisingly poor though - not as good as an iPad, say. The
interface has a few rough edges - you are limited to the size the pages
presented to you and cannot scroll down for more real estate.

On balance, I would say that I am broadly content with the device - I use it
to replace the write-once notes, noodles and workings-out that I used to slay
forests for. I did get it for the Kickstarter price, however. I would not pay
a near iPad price for it.

------
lrem
Reading this got me somewhat hyped for the 2nd or maybe 3rd version...

~~~
dvfjsdhgfv
I feel the same. Let someone else pay for the development of this technology
and I'll use it once it's stable.

------
ReaderReader
I'm looking towards the Sony DPT-RP1, but it's not cheap and PDF only, so I
hesitate.

~~~
sriram_malhar
I own the earlier Sony DPT, and I love writing on it. The only problem with
its e-ink display is the really slow page refresh rate.

------
singularity2001
This summer I'm planning to code outside. Is the 13' Dasung for $1400 really
the best/biggest/'cheapest' the market can offer??
[https://www.amazon.com/Dasung-Ink-
Paperlike-13-3-Monitor/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Dasung-Ink-
Paperlike-13-3-Monitor/dp/B075FL8DKV)

@notemaker Boox Max2 Pro looks better, thanks. Pretty small display, but it's
a start.

~~~
book_mentioned
Bargain basement & barely usable:
[https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=olpc](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=olpc)

------
devwinportable
from my experience, "apple pencil" is a piece of crap (too slippary, too
heavy, requires charging thru the ipad's port ...wtf?)

Surface Pro / Galaxy Notebooks(wacom-based) with "a layer of finely textured
acrylic glass" will be a much better comparison.

> but it comes at the cost of not being able to flip through documents using
> finger swipes or taps

so no multi-finger zoom gestures

~~~
tlrobinson
> requires charging thru the ipad's port ...wtf

It comes with an adapter so you can charge it with same Lightning charger you
use to charge the iPad itself.

I almost accidentally threw it out with the packaging. They should have
incorporated into the cap so you'd always have it with you.

Also it's kind of silly they didn't make that end (where an eraser usually is)
function as an eraser.

~~~
devwinportable
but why not just put a female-end of lightning port? (not on top but somewhere
near middle - I agree with your eraser function)

having a cap to protect its manliness is so... stupid

~~~
tlrobinson
It’s nice being able to charge directly from the iPad in a pinch. Supposedly
15 seconds of charging gives you 30 minutes of use.

I’ve just been using the female-female adapter as a cap, but it doesn’t look
as nice. It’s more oval than round and has the exposed port.

I’m kind of surprised no one has made a nicer female-female adapter with
matching male cap.

------
Liblor
I own a reMarkable Tablet, unfortunately its software has many teething
troubles. For instance, the regular* eraser doesn't erase everything. I.e. on
the tablet, it appears as it erases everything, but as soon as you export the
page some fragments reappear. Also the percentage battery indicator is
unreliable. Or was, they simply removed the indicator in an update. Now, you
only have a approximated indicator, which is annoying (I hope the origin of
the problem is not hardware related).

If they keep on working on the software, it'll be an awesome device. I love
that one has root access via SSH and the writing and reading experience is
splendid. However, I have to add this is my first "e-reader", so for me
missing features like a dictionary is no biggie. Someone who has owned a
kindle might find the reading mode rather limited and thus unsatisfactory.

* The one that emulates a pencil eraser

------
book_mentioned
If you need to digitize hand-written notes, check out the write-only(ish)
Boogie Board Sync.

I haven't Bluetooth'd yet, but plug it in and copy from its drive of single-
page PDFs (with InkML?).

[https://amzn.com/B00E8CIGCA](https://amzn.com/B00E8CIGCA) $99.47

~~~
aerique
I've tried the Boogie Board Sync in the past and it really is write-only. The
price is nice and they're honest about its features. Still, I really missed
not being able to page through earlier notes.

Also, the feel of writing on it is okay but not good or great.

Had it been able to show earlier notes I would have recommended it to everyone
looking for a digital notebook.

------
hartator
Ars Technica review: [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/12/remarkable-
tablet-re...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/12/remarkable-tablet-
review-the-high-price-of-getting-that-paper-feeling/)

------
michaelmior
My biggest pet peeve with the device is the software. What runs on the tablet
is fine but the Android and Windows app have a pretty unattractive UI and
there's a lot of things that are broken. I did some digging into the Android
app and it looks like both that and the Windows app (and presumably Mac) are
based on the same Qt interface.

I'm hoping they'll work on native apps at some point in the future. A web app
would be particularly nice too. I wrote a very brief review myself a few
months ago[0].

[0] [https://michael.mior.ca/blog/remarkable-
review/](https://michael.mior.ca/blog/remarkable-review/)

------
falcolas
If you're looking for a sub-$100 object with which to capture notes and pull
them up later, might I suggest looking at the Boogie Board sync? It's not
quite pencil-on-paper, but it's close enough that it doesn't bother me at all.

It can't pull up notes on itself. The resolution is not as fine as a iPencil
or ReMarkable. It will only ever display what you've written yourself. The
wireless sync only works with its own software (which is, yes, a wtf), so you
have to connect with a wire to pull down the files you make.

But you _can_ take notes and make drawings, save them, and download them as
PDFs later.

------
xwvvvvwx
I don't even want a stylus, I just want an A4 eink device that I can read A4
formatted PDFs on (papers / textbooks).

This is pretty much the only thing I actually use my iPad for right now.

~~~
_wmd
This was the only reason I bought an Aura HD, turns out it was nowhere nearly
high enough res. I see this has a much larger screen but a corresponding drop
in DPI.

Anyone tried this with a typical 11pt font 2 column paper?

------
amthewiz
Most scientific research is still published as PDFs with small text at A4 size
(approx 13inch diag). Anyone has experience reading such material on
ReMarkable ~10inch screen?

~~~
beezle
If you crop the margins on US based journals, you can read a full page. The
type is slightly smaller than what it would be if printed on paper, but is
more than legible with good eyes or those who wear glasses (me). A4 is close
to letter sized so results should be similar.

Note, you can find free software that will batch crop documents. Yes, its an
inconvenience but a small one to no longer need to zoom/pan and/or use LCD
based devices.

------
ncr100
I have one and use it daily for notetaking at work, written > 200 pages with
this kind of content:

> Feb 7: Sync meeting with Bob and Carol > > [ ] Give Bob access to repo

Yes software / power management issues, and yes slow update cycle.

But YES it's a > lightweight < paper replacement! and it syncs!

VERY useful for sketching out diagrams, and having other people sketch out
their diagrams. Many people communicate better when they're writing.
Whiteboards are not always available.

------
keehun
I would buy this immediately if the screen were bigger. At least legal sized.
(Am a musician, and our normal paper sizes in Orchestra are 9x12 or 10x12
inches.)

~~~
jrimbault
I've been bothered by the piles of partition books stacked on top of my piano
since I was a child.

Same as you, I would want a large e ink tablet. Doesn't have to be responsive,
just has to read pdfs, US legal size or A4.

------
asdfghj123
Note that the stylus tips need to be replaced relatively frequently, but there
are reports that less-paper-like tips from other manufacturers do work and
last longer:
[http://remarkablewiki.com/index.php?title=List_of_compatible...](http://remarkablewiki.com/index.php?title=List_of_compatible_Styli)

------
cmrdporcupine
So I was pretty much set to buy one, thinking I'd replace my Kindle, too... I
like the sound of it, but it sounds like they do not support the reading of
any ePub documents with DRM, which means store purchases and library checkouts
are out of the question.

I'm not a huge lover of DRM, but that's a bit dissapointing.

------
seiferteric
Hmm, I had been thinking about something very similar to this recently. I
would love to have a e-ink replacement for those big desk calendars, where
it's only purpose/function would be the calendar, note taking and reading
documents and maybe email. This seems to be pretty close if not perfect for
that.

------
CodeSheikh
I can literally see that stylus lag just by looking at the GIF published in
the article. The claim "An E Ink tablet that's more fun to write on than
paper." can't be true if you are an avid note-taker or are somewhat fond of
calligraphy. And $600 price tag is steep.

------
perseusprime11
What's the difference between this and boogie board?
[https://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-eWriter-
Gray-J31020001/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-eWriter-
Gray-J31020001/dp/B010HWCEFY/)

$600 seems to much to me.

~~~
scaryclam
That's not an eInk display...so...it's not really the same product.

------
Tepix
It has been discussed here previously. I'm waiting for a 2nd generation device
with backlight.

------
asciimo
I was considering this but opted for a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. The stylus is
nice, and you can take quick notes directly on the lock screen. I'm writing
this post with it and it's much nicer than a virtual keyboard.

------
polskibus
Has anyone held it in their hands? How does the screen compare to a 300dpi
pearl eink like aura one or Oasis? I love my Kobo aura one, but I think one of
the reasons it is so great is the 300dpi screen.

------
spiderfarmer
I would love a large e-Ink screen that I can use with a raspberry to create a
low power unobtrusive dashboard somewhere in my living room. But all I can
find are < 5 inch screens.

------
kevin_thibedeau
> There’s no doubt a faster processor would vastly improve this tablet.

1 GHz is more than fast enough for a snappy bootup and responsive input. The
devs just need to improve the firmware.

------
rocky1138
The #1 reason I dislike pen and paper is that it's impossible to grep. Does
this device solve this problem? Or is it simply moving pen and paper into the
digital age?

------
chx
I had a CrossPad twenty years ago. And it feels like this device has improved
extremely little from it. The CrossPad was recording what you wrote in a
notepad placed on top of it, it had a little radio in the pen, and later you
could download what you did, if I remember, in a vector format so it was
better than a scanner. The ReMarkable on the other hand, records what you are
writing on a screen and later you can download what you did because it seems
the device is not capable of doing a thing with it.

In twenty years, we got... nowhere. Now you can wipe the writing surface with
a button press instead of turning a page. Twenty. years.

~~~
majjam
I was hoping the ReMarkable would be cheaper than the CrossPad, but this
([https://web.archive.org/web/19991201033034/http://cfonews.co...](https://web.archive.org/web/19991201033034/http://cfonews.com/atxa/d092898z.txt.html))
indicates it was $399 at launch which equates to $572 in today's money
([http://stats.areppim.com/calc/calc_usdlrxdeflator.php](http://stats.areppim.com/calc/calc_usdlrxdeflator.php))
which is still cheaper than the ReMarkable's $600 launch price.

~~~
chx
Just a small note: that's the CrossPad XP but the original was also $399.
[https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/2731.wss](https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/2731.wss)

------
summadat
This is nice, but..the iPad Pro starts at $636, pencil is $99 extra, not much
more than this $600 device.

~~~
blairbeckwith
This is a completely different type of device. Do you question people spending
$20k on a car when they can buy a pickup truck for the same price?

------
caoilte
e-ink is remarkably endurable. I've had my Sony PRS-505 nearly ten years and
it's still great.

------
doktrin
I've tried one and was quite impressed, even though it's not a tool that I
personally need.

------
some1else
What author refers to as "stylus lag" is actually a limitation of the E-ink
display.

~~~
djrogers
No, there are clear differences in lag between the printing and doodling
examples in the video - much more with printing than the big doodle/scribble
below it.

------
anotheryou
Is there any hdmi e-ink screen? Preferably with the possibility to power from
USB :)

~~~
nkurz
I think the Onyx Boox Max2 PRO does this:

[https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/8/16750544/o...](https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/8/16750544/onyx-
boox-max-2-ereader-price-date)

[https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/onyx-boox-
ma...](https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/onyx-boox-
max2-pro-13-3-inch-e-reader-review)

~~~
anotheryou
thanks, looks good. But the price tag... hehe

------
k__
Is there a timeline on how fast e-ink got since its inception?

------
adultSwim
The authors prior opinions about e-ink displays are trash.

------
perseusprime11
Missed opportunity for Evernote!

------
jonnybgood
> the reMarkable tablet definitely has the potential to make paper notebooks
> obsolete.

Nope. Maybe the later generations of the device and competitors entering the
market forcing a lower price will, though. I’d pay 300 tops for it.

~~~
simonbarker87
Perhaps that’s why the article used the word “potential”? As in: not now but
maybe in the future... like, later generations perhaps?

~~~
klibertp
No, the quote specifically says "the reMarkable tablet", meaning the one under
review right now. jonnybgood notes that this particular version doesn't have
the potential to replace paper because it is too expensive, and I happen to
agree.

------
khougesen
its a near copy of boox max from [https://www.alibaba.com/product-
detail/13-3-inch-large-e-ink...](https://www.alibaba.com/product-
detail/13-3-inch-large-e-
ink_60661942744.html?spm=a2700.7724838.2017115.2.48756a921fHBCb)

probably boox who oem's it for them

~~~
Tepix
That's a 13.3" Android device, the Remarkable is a 10.3" non-android device.

