[HN Gopher] Using Two ReMarkables
___________________________________________________________________
Using Two ReMarkables
Author : breezykermo
Score : 92 points
Date : 2024-11-06 01:29 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.ohrg.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.ohrg.org)
| yzydserd wrote:
| I've been doing similar!
|
| Study notes on one. Exercise notepad on the other.
| skavi wrote:
| The people yearn for the Microsoft Courier [0].
|
| [0]: https://youtu.be/UmIgNfp-MdI
| Multicomp wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I am very much hoping that Samsung will make a Yogabook 9i
| competitor w/ Wacom EMR.
| downrightmike wrote:
| 1.3M views 15 years ago
| nxobject wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| "Realist" media criticism such as this is becoming my
| favorite form.
|
| See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42093345 As well.
| gamblor956 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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_ wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| That is likely a problem with that specific stylus --- have
| you tried a different stylus?
| parasense wrote:
| 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?
| bc569a80a344f9c wrote:
| I'm currently doing a Masters in Computer Engineering,
| struggling through a lot of calculus and linear algebra.
|
| I have a Remarkable 2 for notes and working on math problem
| set homework to hand in as PDFs.
|
| It's fine. It doesn't do anything other than record your
| handwriting. You can try and have it convert it to text, this
| works for language but fails utterly at math. I got the
| better pen that you can turn around to use as an eraser as
| using the UI to change the tool from pen to eraser and back
| is incredibly annoying.
|
| I recently got an iPad to use instead mostly because I wanted
| one anyway, and because my handwriting is atrocious and iOS
| 18 pretties it up. I haven't quite made up my mind on which
| one I'll continue using. The iPad and its pen are more
| responsive, the fact that it improves my handwriting is a
| boon for the TAs, and solving some of the simpler math
| automatically is neat. The built in Notes app is garbage for
| handing in multi-page PDFs, bafflingly this is impossible,
| but the Goodnotes app is cheap and rather good. There's other
| apps to convert handwritten math into Latex.
|
| The Remarkable produces much smaller file sizes (I'm not sure
| why I care, the web app I upload homework to sure doesn't)
| and the battery lasts much longer. I find replacing the pen
| tips very annoying and have no idea why that is needed.
|
| I'll probably end up using the iPad more, but I'll guess I'll
| see.
| nunez wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Yeah, running Linux and having SSH are a massive plus for me
| too. I can use them as substitute Wacom tablets for basic
| drawing (design diagrams, sketches on calls etc) and check
| https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable every so often
| to see what cool new things I can do with them. :)
| nyolfen wrote:
| Check out daylight: https://daylightcomputer.com/
|
| they've only launched recently (mine arrives monday) but it
| uses a novel display tech which purports to be e-ink-like with
| 60fps. i'm very excited because the main usecase for ereaders
| that i've found totally unworkable for the last 15 years of
| trying is marking up the margins of a pdf while i read it;
| early readers were too small to read pdf's, current gen ones
| can be large and high-dpi enough but are still agonizingly slow
| to refresh. finally, finally i can just take notes in my docs.
| plus it runs android and you can hack it
| https://www.daylighthacker.wiki/
| TheRealPomax wrote:
| But note that the daylight is not an e-ink device. It's just
| good old LCD.
| sudhirkhanger wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| The pen is octnrtimes really imprecise. Sometimes up to 1-2 mm.
| evoke4908 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| > 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.
| ganoushoreilly wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 :)
| johnbellone wrote:
| You can enable developer mode and remote into the device. There
| are several API frameworks for building extensions. This has
| been one of the better experiences with hardware (RMP) I've
| ever had. What else are you looking for in a "jailbreak?"
| codemonkey-zeta wrote:
| Yeah parent comment might have missed that. RM2 gives you
| root access to a dead simple Linux system running on the
| device. There's literally nothing better than that. There's
| also a whole community of app developers for the RM, RM2 and
| now the newest one, search for Toltec. There's tons of
| options for writing simple scripts to interact with the
| Remarkable. It's my favorite feature!
| DavideNL wrote:
| I had the same experience, when not using their cloud (for
| privacy reasons), syncing your docs / getting them off the
| device is very cumbersome.
|
| This totally breaks my workflow. I also tried jailbreaking, but
| it's all too finicky. It's yet another project to manage,
| instead of a solution / improvement.
| bloopernova wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| compare https://xkcd.com/1988/
| vtail wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| How's the quality of the stylus? Have you found good software
| for handwriting, both in general and atop existing documents?
| vtail wrote:
| I think it's a standard Wacom stylus. I like it overall, the
| writing is pretty fluid.
| vtail wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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-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).
| vtail wrote:
| Interesting feedback, thanks. My own reflections:
|
| - _oddly heavy_ : it's indeed heavier than remarkable, but
| not an issue for me.
|
| - _handwriting lag_ : hm, which app did you use? I didn't
| notice that in both Reader and Notes, the experience was all
| right for me.
|
| - _no setup_ : valid feedback, I had to figure out things
| myself. Granted, it's an Android tablet, so I think I
| discovered most of the shortcuts etc. Not that much different
| from iPad.
|
| - _display resolution_ : maybe because I used iPad mini (and
| Remarkable) before, I didn't have very high expectations. The
| resolution is OK with me.
|
| - _chrome rendering too small_ : I didn't notice that before
| you mentioned it, but you can also change the default zoom
| level in Settings -> Accessibility, which I just discovered.
|
| - Google ecosystem: yep, I kinda expected that given that I
| knew it's an Android tablet, so that was not an issue for me.
| rafaelmn wrote:
| Just looked into this and - this isn't e-ink just a grayscale
| LCD - at that point just get an iPad instead of an overpriced
| low end Android tablet.
| vtail wrote:
| It's a reflective LCD, much better in a direct sunlight.
|
| Our mileage certainly varies - I would not consider buying an
| iPad (I already have an iPad mini and don't want more of
| that), but this device I really like. It's hard to put a
| finger on it. I read other reviewers claiming that reading
| e.g. X in greyscale is less addictive, and I didn't really
| believe it until I tried it myself. Something is certainly
| different about my workflows on this device.
|
| Reading it late at night is much more enjoyable than reading
| an iPad, even with the Night Shift on.
| fragmede wrote:
| > It's an Android tablet
|
| That's _not_ a feature. I 'm looking for a digital piece of
| paper that _can 't_ access reddit/HN/webpages-on-demand, not
| something that runs highly distracting apps. If I wanted that I
| could just buy an ipad. I know it's seems really weird to
| intentionally pay more and get less - fewer features, but the
| fact that I can go lock myself in my office with my phone and
| laptop elsewhere and get some proper reading and writing done
| on my remarkable is, well, I'd say remarkable, but now I sound
| like an ad. But I'm not getting paid by them and that's just
| what they called it.
| walterbell wrote:
| iPadOS Accessibility Mode can restrict usage to a few user-
| selected apps.
| j2kun wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I have a ReMarkable 2 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab Ultra and they
| work really well together.
| qnleigh wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| You should check out Supernote. While still a bit closed, it's
| interop is far superior to Remarkable.
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| 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.
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