Bill mentioned the following in the Things 3 thread:

But then, I am an inveterate CRIMPer - I’ve just managed to (finally) persuade myself out of “investing” in the gorgeous but as yet unproven reMarkable “paper tablet”, a new device that uses eInk not just for reading, but for notes and sketching too (for interested CRIMPers, more details here: https://getremarkable.com No doubt I’ll have to re-dissuade myself once it’s actually launched…

Being an inveterate CRIMPer myself, I had to follow the link. The reMarkable Paper Tablet does look impressive, but -- unless I missed it somewhere -- it doesn't do optical character recognition of your hand-written notes. Without that, it seems to me that it really isn't any better than actual paper notebooks for managing your notes. The main advantage of keeping your notes digitally is in having indexing and search functions. Maybe it isn't possible to have accurate OCR on all the possible variations of handwriting, but without that, I can easily resist spending $500-800 on this unit, no matter how impressive it is.

Any other thoughts about this?

Steve Z.

A couple of statements on reMarkable's site are interesting

The answer to most of the technical questions in their own FAQ: "Let's just say the future of the reMarkable is bright and filled with many exciting possibilities. That being said, we never promise anything more than what we feature on our web pages and under product specifications."

and

"No tablet has fewer functionalities than reMarkable (you can quote us on that). "

I think that pretty much sums it up. What you see is what is you get.

One of their technology partners is eInk -- the Amazon Kindle Voyage uses eInk technology for its display. Though, the Voyage as 300 dbi resolution and the reMarkable device has 226 dpi -- almost 25% lower resolution. Will that produce jaggies in the handwriting? Hard to tell. Some of the questions they posed themselves and did not answer is how to get info out of the device -- into Dropbox, or Evernote, or wherever.

Sounds like for the price of admission you get a nice looking device, less feature rich than anything else in the market, and no commitment on what happens after you use it to take notes.

But it sure is pretty.

This looks like the new NoteSlate.

You'd think the OCR could be easily offloaded to a cloud server, even if the tablet itself couldn't handle it.

They talk about OCR in their extensive notes to the product - the reason they're not offering it (yet) is that they haven't found a solution that works well enough. But they're certainly looking at it.

However, the reMarkable does communicate with desktops and mobiles of all kinds, so there's no reason not to take extensive notes and then OCR them using any one of the many iOS or Android (or indeed macOS or Windows) apps available.

But I agree that built-in indexing and OCR would be even better. As it is, the reMarkable is setting itself up to be a great browsing or input device, but not an independent computing device on its own, as it were. But then, they don't pretend that it is.

Why does it appeal to me? I suppose because I like to sketch a lot, or mix text with sketches when I'm "thinking"; the battery life is (probably) very good; it uses a super-sensitive stylus (developed with Wacom); it uses highly readable eInk -- and because I'm a sucker for highly refined, limited-function devices that only do a few things, but do them extremely well...

sigh<

Bill

Bill -- save your pennies for a "real" computer that isn't an island, and get that iPad Pro + Pencil you know is what you really want.

It sounds like they save everything on their proprietary cloud?

"All your work is automatically backed up securely with reMarkable's cloud service"

That might mean some subscription costs down the line, and being locked in one way or another.

An alternative development to keep an eye on is Chrome OS + Android, which is pointing towards upcoming tablet or two-in-one devices with stylus support. An early example is the Samsung Chromebook Plus and Pro (apparently the Squid android app works well with it).

That is more of an all-in-one type of device (I understand the appeal of specialist devices - I'm a Boogie Board Sync user after all), but there is something to be said about the benefits of an existing cloud service (if you use Google Drive already), and the associated Chrome OS + Android ecosystem.

Paul Korm wrote:

Bill -- save your pennies for a "real" computer that isn't an island,
and get that iPad Pro + Pencil you know is what you really want.

Yes, indeedy. I have the same ambition, and hope to satisfy it in the next few months (either with a "remaindered" first-generation Pro, or with a new second-generation one, rumoured to be launched very soon. I hope to use it primarily for proof-reading, so avoiding having to lug around a big pile of drafts...)

On OCR-ing handwriting, and the reluctance of the creators of the device in question to allow it to be used for this technology (yet). It does seem to me that they're probably wise. In development terms, handwriting machine-recognition on "pro-sumer" tablets appears to be ten to fifteen years behind voice recognition. Enough for search with a sufficiently powerful tablet like the iPad Pro, and enough, probably, for the sort of handwriting-to-text functionality that MyScript Nebo can now successfully carry out on the iPad Pro and MS Surface Pro 4, but no more. Given the research publicised within the last eighteen months suggesting the superiority of handwriting over typing for brain engagement, I'm itching for faster development. But there's little or no evidence of it yet.

@Hugh

more. Given the research publicised within the last eighteen months
suggesting the superiority of handwriting over typing for brain
engagement,

That sounds interesting. Can you give us some sources on the net?

@All
Am I the only one for whom the price point of the reMarkable Tablet seems ridiculous?
I bought the Slate vs2 (iskn.co) for 170 Euro. It's "only" an enhanced graphics tablet without OCR. But I could (if my handwriting was more legible) feed the image file to a OCR software that I already have. The Slate allows me to draw on ordinary paper and turns the lines I draw into a digital bitmap or vector graphic so I can edit it on the PC/Mac. It's not perfect but more than good enough for me. Did I mention that I prefer drawing with pen on paper to drawing with plastic on plastic?

Have a fine day.

Aaaaaargh! Paul and Hugh, you are, of course, right, I've been dreaming of my very own iPad Pro to hold and cuddle and whisper warm things to since they first appeared.

As an inveterate CRIMPer, I suppose one of the things that appeals about the reMarkable tablet is that it's so much cheaper... (yes, I'm a sucker for last-generation equipment at knock-down prices, which probably explains why I have a couple of Psion-Ericsson 5mxs at the back of a drawer somewhere! Great machines, mind; Nokia, alas, really wrecked the fantastic Psion EPOC operating system when they turned it into Symbian). But Frank's right, too; the reMarkable may be cheaper than an iPad, but it's not exactly cheap.

And yes, if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would rush out and get a 12.9-inch iPad more or less immediately. After giving away suitable amounts to worthy causes, of course, ahem!

Sad, sad, sad...

I'll start saving.

Sony had an E-ink device a few years ago -- Digital Paper -- and discontinued it. Though reportedly they will be selling a similar, new product in Japan soon. I believe Digital Paper was configured to sync with WebDAV. It was also very large -- greater than 13" diagonal. The price was about $300 U.S. more than reMarkable.

One can buy lots of really nice paper notebooks and writing instruments for $700.

Franz Grieser wrote:

@Hugh

>more. Given the research publicised within the last eighteen months
>suggesting the superiority of handwriting over typing for brain
>engagement,

That sounds interesting. Can you give us some sources on the net?

Here's a NYT piece which, if I remember correctly, first triggered interest (two years ago): https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html?_r=0

Here's a summary of one of the studies which I believe started to generate at least a segment of opinion which favours handwriting, especially in the young: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/were-only-human/ink-on-paper-some-notes-on-note-taking.html#.WSWd3zPlTMU

And here's a recent journalistic update: http://mentalfloss.com/article/33508/4-benefits-writing-hand

None of it conclusive, of course. And N.B. I'm not an academic. But, as I say, suggestive.

The first citation was of course three years ago!

Thanks, Hugh.

Got a reMarkable, it's great but ...

1. It lacks of connectivity, drag & drop on an app is soooo 2010. reMarkable should provide an IFTTT connector in order to sync files with DropBox, Google Drive and more ... You don't want to think about copying a file to review

2. It lack of OCR, so yes it could be done in the cloud, but for that you need 1.)

Interesting review the other day from MACWORLD. They seemed impressed by it, found it was more like writing on paper than an iPad Pro is. But the $500 street-sale-price was deemed still too high.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGsWLeHZT8Y

The screen is better for writing than is the iPad glass screen. But if you buy a paperlike plastic covering for the iPad, they are about the same for writing.