I can't say it was 100% worth the price (half was paid as a gift), but everything about it is refreshingly elegant and simple.
Great to know recovering from a brick is possible too.
However, I think that was before the software projects mentioned in this post. I never tried to SSH into it, so maybe it's possible to use it for things that you can't replace with paper.
But I said what the hell. And I'm so glad I did, it's a great device that definitely fills a niche in my workflow. I mostly use it for brainstorming sessions. I like it a lot. I wish it synced more seamlessly but perhaps that'll happen at some point.
Dropbox and Google Drive integration arrived with the latest update earlier this month.
> The only supported way to get things off the device is by email
I think you're forgetting reMarkable's own built-in cloud storage which syncs the device with the desktop and mobile apps. Additionally, you can access a built-in web interface on the device whenever it's connected to your computer via USB.
> Codex — A purposely designed Linux-based operating system for low-latency digital paper displays
I wonder how it works. Are the drivers proprietary?
We get around this by just piggybacking on the build in application's screen display routines[0]
That said, it seems clear that the reMarkable team is not focused on the "taking notes on PDFs" use case. It works pretty well just because reMarkable is a good reading and handwriting platform, but it could be a lot better.
Use case: I work in a publicly funded institution where the contents of my notes are often required for lawsuits, settlements, and general FOIA inquiries on occasion. Being able to carry around 50 different notebooks for various uses, cordon them off from each other, and reproduce them in either original form, or converted to text is a remarkable time saver.
The only thing it doesn't have that I desperately wish it did is to be able to tag pages and search via tag. That would make my life so much better.
It's fun to draw on, but I'm a garbage artist. So it's pleasant to be able to doodle while I'm thinking in meetings and then immediately erase the doodle, but I don't use it for more than that.
Marking up pdf or other files is pretty great, too.
I also use it for annotating and displaying PDFs as well as sheet music when practicing piano. I don't read many eBooks on it because I have a smaller Kindle which has a light, making it more versatile when I'm in the mood for reading.
Hope this helps!
The remarkable does cost less than the iPad but it has maybe an 1/8th or a 1/16th of the functionality, and my Kobo reader cost me less than $100 for most of the benefits of having an e-ink reader. It lacks an app ecosystem and seems aimed as a tinker device instead of an end user product.
But I guess if you have to have a larger e-ink tablet the remarkable seems to be the thing.
So with that in mind, an e-ink reader doesn't make for a good writing device, and an ipad is lacking the wacom style e-ink tablet.
Is it overpriced for what it is? Yeah, probably, that's the curse of small batch hardware in the world of Google and Apple.
But an ipad and an e-reader don't really replace it's niche. If you're cool with the writing experience on an ipad, then the Remarkable is essentially useless to you.
Personally, I really, really love my Remarkable 2 (I also had the original, but the 2 is way better).
I feel the same way about the kindle oasis. Amazon seems to care less than nothing about that whole product line, it is so neglected.
In hindsight, we probably could have connected it to the guest network, gotten its IP and then had the networking group look up its MAC on their logs. What we wound up doing is telling the user to go home and check their own router for the MAC, which is obviously less than ideal service.
Arguably, none of the functionality is half-assed. It works very well as a writing tablet. It absolutely sucks as a general purpose device because everything except the very core experience is flat-out missing.
There isn't a good general purpose eInk tablet and the reMarkable is the closest thing we have. :(
I found it weird at first... But then you realise you're supposed to be able to write on the pages any time. The moment you support general epub rendering your pages are no longer fixed and your notes should move around as well. The moment you change your font size, all your notes, drawings and highlights no longer match the underlying text. I actually think "render to pdf", or more specifically to some fixed page format, is the ideal experience on this device. Realigning your notes is an impossible problem to solve and if I were a dev I would also discourage any features that reflow text on demand.
Missing features (search in document, bookmarks, whatever) should be implemented for both pdfs and epubs.
>It absolutely sucks as a general purpose device because everything except the very core experience is flat-out missing.
As is intended, I do not want a general purpose device, I want an electronic notebook, to replace what used to be many many paper notebooks I used to keep meeting notes, daily activity logs, quick todo lists, etc.
I do not want email on it, I do not want notifications on it, I wanted to replace my paper notebook, and be able to read ebooks
The Remarkable 2 replaced my Paper-white and all physical notebooks for me.
Remarkable seems like it's still a little better at writing feel/writing latency but the Boox line is very good as eInk tablets.
I have a Boox Note Air that's fantastic and about the same price as the RM2 after import taxes. The built in Epub reader is far better than most off the shelf apps, because it supports E-ink centric features such as "embolden text" and "darken image" that are especially helpful when reading colour PDFs.
Note taking quality is more than good enough for me with the stock pen, although there are fancier options available. Best of all, you can split screen between the note app and the reading app, so you can take notes as you read.
And since it is hackable the community made interesting strides in other use cases as well
It also fully supports 802.1X, which surprised me.
https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/36000267477...
0: https://remarkablewiki.com/tips/wifi
(Also, given that OP's a part time helpdesk person, they can't turn the MAC filtering off anyway).
If you have time I'm sure they would appreciate the feedback.
To give an example, certain dead devices can be saved after being baked in the oven to re-seat components that have worked loose. According to the "No True Bricking" argument that constantly comes up, those devices were never really bricked because they were later fixable, even though you're literally performing a re-manufacturing step.
In fact what exactly would a "True Bricking" look like? Even in cases where a major component dies, if you desolder it, and re-solder a new one is that a "True Bricking?"
See I have zero patience for the "No True Bricking" stuff since it is a logical Swiss cheese.
I've recovered and hacked devices for friends using software. Especially phones which have recovery functions I can use but I've also hacked some older game consoles. I can't do anything if electronics skills are required though. At that point it becomes specialized repair work.
I suppose nothing's really bricked if you're smart enough. Just desolder a chip, reprogram it and resolder it back in? I don't know how. I tried to learn what I could but it turned out hardware is a lot harder than software.
But given the extent of the required work to recover the device here (actual hardware work, non-trivial and not for a layperson) then I think it’s appropriate.
Not a hill I’m going to die on but it does kind of bother me when someone describes their device as bricked and all they need to do is plug it in and run some kind of simple restore utility or otherwise.
This feels a bit like the word "bug"; I'd be quite interested to know if it can be traced to its actual first use.
People associate it with phones because as I remember they were always being described as the size (and weight) of a brick, and that's when they were working.
60% of the time it works every time.
They could have used rsync without installing rsync on the device. The target device doesn't need to have rsync for rsync to be used.
They could have installed the package manager and left it. It doesn't run anything in the background on my device. It's easy enough to verify you don't have a systemd service or timer running it. (cron isn't installed, iirc)
They could have compiled rsync with all of the libraries bundled with it. (Maybe this is beyond their expertise?)
Their solution is using Docker to use the package manager and then overwriting system files on the device in the worse possible way, without understanding what they are doing. At that point, they verified in Docker. Should be safe to run it on the tablet then, yes?
What attack vector are they worried about? :/ Toltec is actively worked on, odds are someone would notice someone else fucking with repository.
The cherry on top was completely not understanding how the remarkable works. There are two partitions for a reason. The inactive one is used for software updates. When the reMarkable downloads an update, it downloads it to the inactive partition. When you "install" the update, it flips which of the two partitions is active. If the update fails to boot, it flips back to the known good state. All they had to do was switch the active partition, the next update would overwrite the broken partition. https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable2-recovery/issues/6
This looks like a bad case of tunnel vision, combined with a lack of understanding. I'm glad they managed to figure out how to fix it.
> Going further down the rabbit hole, the toltec GitHub page mentions that it works on top of the Entware distribution, and recommends what is basically “wget | bash”. I’m not a fan of this. Could I install my own rsync?
We made sure that the toltec install process includes a hash of the install script to prove that it isn't modified by a man-in-the-middle. Toltec itself requires the use of SSL to connect after the fact, which lowers the risk after it's been installed. We are also exploring the implications of adding package signing[0].
I apologize, I could have better expressed why I took the path I did. I'll edit the post later today.
A bit late for that, no?
Maybe I misunderstood but the modified version could do it's thing and then download the official script to fool that check.
Or pretty much anything else imaginable.
This is not true.
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-copy...
Edit: Looks like I was wrong.
[0] https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...
usually there are three. system a and system b which are updated and flipped and some sort of emergency recovery that either has a factory image or a very light rom that phones home for a new image.
Other than that, I love my RM2, just can’t use it for as much as I’d like because of the above.
I guess you do need a way to get the docs on the device. Their sync process is weird.
A few reasons I like my remarkable (I have an original and a 2, and got my wife one):
1. forced isolation - no notifications come into this device when I'm using it out of the box. It's a nice intentionally crippled feature for focus.
2. The feel. It's like writing on paper, or very near to it. The texture of the tablet and the pencil together is really ... remarkable. It's not at all the same as writing on an iPad or iPad Pro.
3. I doubt in a quantitative comparison the remarkable would beat the iPad in latency, but it still feels damn good. Surprisingly good compared to other touch screen/pencil tablets.
Gripes:
- some edge effects when writing, loses some precision
- the touch buttons on the original were more ergonomic for navigation, the swipe gestures in the 2 seem to work 50-60% on the first try.
- replacing the nubs on the pencil is annoying, but I barely made it through my first included package with the remarkable 1, so not a real problem.
- software is rudimentary. A lot of quality of life features do not exist and maybe should. The writing app, which should kind of be the only thing given attention is pretty far behind, and has only made small improvements (at least visibly to me, this is not to diminish what I am sure is a lot of behind the scenes work to make everything fast).
I probably wouldn't jump to buy a third one, unless it had physical navigation buttons, but the progression from 1 to 2 was pretty amazing. The thing was already thin, but the 2 is so thin I'm amazed it can house a USB-C port.
Having to plug a resistor into the device to put it in any sort of recovery mode does walk a very fine line between “not really bricked” and “dude you squeezed water out of a stone, you are a demigod”.
The Remarkable 2 is very nice, I would like to try one out, though I don't have any immediate use for something like that, except maybe as an e-reader.
I still use paper notebooks, but I rarely need to actually do something with the contents afterwards, other than refer to them occasionally. Maybe if I was more organized...
I think it's because it's an ambiguous metaphor. Does it mean currently only as useful to you as a brick, or does it mean as objectively valuable as a brick. Personally I prefer the original stronger definition, where recoverable issues do not count as bricked, but so it goes.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20379772
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20381892
It's really, Really, REALLY dead-set against letting you do anything useful like use wikipedia or stackoverflow on your ultra-long-battery-life beautiful-display device that you might, I dunno, want to use to look at reference material.
Also Bluetooth is hardware-disabled, so no keyboard. What the hell, people. After seeing all the hacks and stuff I figured that might be possible, didn't learn otherwise until after placing the order. Whoops.
I'm in the market for an e-ink reader and have been considering the RM2, but the Pinenote looks pretty tasty too..
Actually, it isn't. The resistor is in row 16 of the bread board, the cable to the connector is in row 15. I'm sure, you just wanted to test whether we're paying attention.
First, I sort of ordered it on a whim. I liked the idea and thought it'd be cool to use for work while not having to use my personal iPad even more.
This is their decision, but they ship with DHL, which is absolutely godawful in literally every experience I've had with them. I learned after ordering that the device doesn't allow searching within your handwritten notes, a feature I use regularly in GoodNotes on my iPad.
So, I looked at how to return the device before I even got it. Their support said to just tell DHL to return to shipper. I called DHL they said "sure, we'll do that" for the next two days I kept getting text messages from DHL saying they hadn't managed to ship it back yet, they'd update me the next day.
Then the device shows up at my doorstep and DHL skipped requiring a signature and just dropped it on the porch. Great.
So I email support back and get the process to fully return from them started.
They send me to a "returns" website that doesn't see my order. Great. Email them back and ask for how to workaround this.
The next email they send me a second returns site.. they have two apparently. Then this time their instructions are about returning for a replacement device. Email back after that and clarify, I am not returning for another device, I am returning and getting a refund. They said oh sure, our mistake.
Their returns site (2nd site) was about as unclear as can be. In fact their instructions in their email were, yet again, for returning for a replacement device, the site said to print 3 copies of one sheet, another one copy of the label to attach to the box. I did so, finally got DHL scheduled to pick it up.
DHL says "nope, we need a different sheet of paper" which was not provided to me until I went searching for it in the returns site. At this point DHL is gone with the box.
I write some feedback to Remarkable about their incredibly terrible instructions and they just keep apologizing but referencing my replacement device despite repeating 5 times at this point that I'm returning for a refund.
DHL has had the package for over 10 days now and it's not moving. My luck, Remarkable is going to get the stupid thing at some point and then ship me a replacement device instead of refunding me and I'll have to do this stupid insanity all over again.
The device itself seems fine, I opened and used it while I was waiting for Remarkable to figure their shit out on my return as each email takes over a day to receive a response. So I have about a week of waiting to return this thing just in waiting for them to send me appropriate return instructions. Another 10 days of screwing around with DHL and no movement of the product.
I would really recommend NOT getting one of these devices unless you are 100% sure you're going to keep it. If you have any inkling of an idea that you may utilize the return process, just don't, it's not worth it.
This has been the single WORST customer support experience I've ever had at this point. Their support people simply regurgitate snippets, and sadly they can't even use the correct snippets, and for that they take over 24 hours to get back to you with those incorrect instructions.
Run, just run away.
I wonder if people are downvoting because they missed the reason why you wanted to return it. Anyways it seems like useful info to know how hard it is to return it. You could always try to sell it on craiglist or ebay.
It was really more a PSA and I'm happy to take the karma hit if it helps some people at the end of the day.
Sadly, the device is in the hands of DHL at this point, and hasn't moved from one of their locations in over 10 days now. Giving it until Friday before I reach out to Remarkable again and ask for them to make this right with a full refund. I doubt they'll give it, they seem like a bunch of people that are fine with someone saying bad things about them in threads like this, potentially costing them tons of money, just to not lose out on one single return. Refunding me would get me to just go away as I never want to hear from them or do business with them again. But refunding me will get me off their back.
I'd love to give it a try soon. Unfortunately couldn't source the required parts from any European online shop. Can anyone help here or is AliExpress the only viable option?
I love my rM2, but there are decent alternative eink note taking devices on a market nowadays.
Maybe I’d buy subsidized rM3 for $200 with backlight, and also nice for it to be waterproof with subscription, but keep asking money from existing owners of rM2 who paid hefty price of $500-600 for device is too much.
I wasn't able to create a proper connection via the pogo; but the community was amazingly helpful (and appropriately critical of my poor soldering skills).
Since the device hadn't synchronized to the cloud in some time, I had to send it out for data recovery. The cost was worth it for me. Happily, the data was fully recoverable and I was able to simply get a drive image and work with it locally using a mix of traditional OS tools as well as tools provided by the Remarkable community.
it's just lovely to seen an open device... this made me want to buy one.
I ended up building a cmdline tool to solve the problem and have been using it for a while: https://github.com/sabidib/remarking
R2 with eraser pen and folio was not cheap though.
