reMarkable tablet: A software update makes this forgotten gadget incredibly useful

How about a “Take my junk” thread where people make a comment to enter? It would be cool to get a BB tchochky in the mail, even if it’s a trash product.

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It is a shame there’s still no link to Dropbox or Evernote - the reMarkable people are being very cagey about future support which I kind of understand, but is pretty frustrating.

However, you might have used an old version of the desktop client, because most of those issues are fixed in their software.

You can sync by WiFi rather than USB. The client also allows uploading of PDFs and ePubs to your tablet - I’d like to see some more formats, but that’s a start. Both the client and the tablet allow you to sort the order of items by filename, date, size, recent updates and so on. Fingers crossed, I haven’t had any problems syncing and I’ve been surprised by the speed

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I have dysgraphia. (I once found out that my boss and my staff had a weekly contest guessing what my notes meant before our big staff meeting. Ha!) Handwriting recognition in general is a fool’s errand for me, but there is a task that tablet based OCR might be good for- teaching my kids proper printing technique.

My eldest is learning to print. Her copper plate is already better than mine, but far behind the rest of her class. This might be a good tool, in some form, where she can practice. If the “typed” letter appears and it is what she was going for, then awesome! If not, she can try again. She is nothing if not tenacious. Now to find some sort of real time handwriting OCR for my phone.

At the end of the day, I want my kids to have a lovely printed hand. My father, who is nearly blind, wants to hold onto his sight long enough to teach the kids calligraphy and cursive, a good cursive with fine flourishes.

When it comes to hand printing letters, all I want is for them to communicate clearly and be understood. That means that an OCR can understand their printing.

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you too, Newton?

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From your description it sounds like a lot of the problems could be fixed by further software updates.

This really makes me wonder about the startup ethos of releasing a minimal viable product as soon as possible and improving it later - there’s a fair chance your customers won’t stick around to watch.

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I really only do cursive in handwriting. Does that convert ok?

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… and voila*

Was fairly amazed at how well the handwriting recognition works. I got in on the kickstarter deal when this was first announced, and it’s been a mix for me - but overall I really do like it. The paper-like handling is awesome. I mostly needed a good large format e-reader to use for datasheets and whitepapers while at the workbench and for mark-up / note taking purposes. The pdf export has apparently been improved with the latest update.

The text conversion is a real force multiplier though. I do wish for more flexibility with the output mechanisms (i.e. as of right now the way to get a converted text file off the device is to have it email it to you (for some reason you can’t render it into a locally stored text file or pdf) - but for the rest of the content (both imported files and locally generated), there is syncing across devices with a client program.

*(wow, don’t know if it shows, but it’s been a quick minute since those cursive synapses were exercised…)

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You have a Surface Go. With a Surface Pen, there -IS- no better brand of computer for using one, and with Drawboard PDF Pro for handwriting, you would never go back to ink and paper or E-ink novelty tablets.

Sometimes what you wish you had is right under your nose, and you only have to try it to realize what you were missing.

Alas for Sony, they almost always do. More than a few things that are now notable (or were until superceded) could be found buried in Sony catalogues sometimes years earlier if you just knew where to look. There’s an apocryphal story about the launch of the iPad, when the Sony CEO said “how soon can we produce one of these?” and was told that they already had but didn’t know what to do with it. I am not entirely convinced that it’s apocryphal…

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Desktop client, yeah… not supported on Linux.

Which is why it’s even more irritating they’re not going the standard route of just making the device available as USB storage.

You’re right, it’s a software issue.

But this device has been out for well over a year. In that time, they barely scratched the surface of the issues with their software updates.

I don’t think the minimum viable product is the issue - it’s the velocity at which you push updates. And in their case, it’s simply glacial.

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Not sure where you are in the world Luther, but on the UK website at least, they offer this promise:

“We are confident that you’ll love reMarkable.Try it for 45 days and in the unlikely event that you want to return it, we offer a free return and a full refund.”

Tempted to give it a go myself, but even if I like it, I’m not sure I could justify spending £630 on a very specialised device like this (I’ve added the price of the case to the cost, as I am intimately familiar with how delicate e-ink devices can be)

There’s this thing for 500-700 dollars or whatever then you have this: https://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-8-5-Inch-Writing-PT01085CYAA0002/dp/B00AFPR68E?ascsubtag=6af5484917d1d437c1737527b9b07d64ebe288de&tag=kinjadeals-20 for a mere 16 bucks.

I’m not going to pretend they build quality or features are anything close but damn isn’t there room for something closer to 16 bucks that will let you save/share whatever you drew or wrote?

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