What does HackerNews think of awesome-reMarkable?
A curated list of projects related to the reMarkable tablet
Personally I completely agree with you, and could have written almost exactly that paragraph - I too have a ReMarkable (the 2nd / current version), and love using it as it ships for both note taking and especially for reading ebooks/PDFs ("especially" just because it's what I use it for more, not because that's what it's better at - in fact, its UI for reading documents is among its weaker points and I hope they improve it in future software updates).
However it is worth pointing out that you can SSH into it, and there are a fair few 3rd party tools and hacks for it - so far I've avoided trying any of them as there's nothing that I want strongly enough to have even a 1% risk of bricking it to worry about. But I'm tempted to start playing around with it someday.
This is the best list of stuff for the ReMarkable that I'm aware of, though I don't know how complete it is / how many released tools or guides there might be that aren't included here:
https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ has a non-ios/android operating system and hardware switch to disconnect network.
https://remarkable.com/ is an e-reader, almost a document management system. It can sync and is hack-able (https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable) but mostly notification free.
https://www.thelightphone.com/ has a radical approach to the user interface. You can call, you can write text messages, there is a mapping application but they're all custom and meant to be distraction free.
It's linux under the cover that you can connect to if you know the password (in the settings).
There's a whole bunch of apps that you can side load into it.
https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
I'm not sure there's anything preventing you from installing write by stylus labs other than that no one appears to have ported it to the device.
It's a 10.3" e-ink device with a really nice touchscreen surface that supports low-latency, high-precision writing using a stylus. It's Linux-based and is highly hackable with lots of open-source projects:
https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
It seems to stand alone....
Yay e-ink, boo GPL violations.
Note, that Onyx is notorious for violating the GPL (it doesn't release kernel sources), while reMarkable is not only compliant, but much more hacker friendly in general: https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
But there are also other companies/products Boyue Likebook, Ratta Supernote, Quirklogic Papyr, Fujitsu Quaderno that compete in the e-ink notepad space as well. I'm keeping an eye on the Bigme Carve Color personally, which basically has all the hardware specs you'd want and color (Kaleido 2) to boot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydo5FtSt_qQ
For those looking at color, it might be worth waiting a few months to see if 1) if the Reinkstone R1 is actually vaporware or not (it has an alternative DES that looks like it provides better looking color, but is being developed by a questionable Chinese company that's been best by delays) and if eInk's Kaleido 3 is a significant improvement.
For those interested in the relatively niche world of e-ink devices, I highly recommend MyDeepGuide as a good place to start: https://www.youtube.com/c/MyDeepGuide/videos
You have actual root access to a reMarkable device by SSHing into it, so not sure your point here? Were you thinking it was a device locked down like an Apple product?
More details: https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
There is also an opkg-based package manager and repo with many packages: https://toltec-dev.org/
So while this one won't work, there are options.
[1] https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable [2] https://toltec-dev.org/ [3] http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/
Looking at the announcement page of the PineNote I'm very excited! I'm hoping the open software running on the PineNote will be comparable to the Remarkable, and if it is I'm definitely going to be making the switch.
As a side note, I'm hoping maybe this encourages the Remarkable team to open source their proprietary binary. Their advantage here is definitely the hardware not the software.
This page contains a list of free software for rM on github:
https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
And this amazing guy even made a full alternative GNU/Linux OS running on rM:
http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/
Still I have some unresolved issues. When I say 'unresolved issues' I mean I tried a few things but didn't found something comfortable 'enough' to use. I need something that 'just works' without me dealing with it constantly.
* How would you sync notes between rM and Mac quickly?
Of course syncing through their online service/apps is out of the question due to the privacy.
* How would you sync quickly books with it?
I know you can connect it directly to a computer and use Web Interface. It's too slow and not always works. I perhaps works for one or two books but not very practicle for everyday use. Besides my new Mac doesn't come with normal usb port (thanks apple) and dealing with adapter is too much of a headake each time.
* How would you use it as second monitor for Mac to read some web articles and work?
I know there is: https://github.com/matteodelabre/vnsee I've managed to configure it as second screen for linux virtual machine running on Mac but this is not the same as running it as second screen to the Mac itself.
Also since my last model of macbook pro (2016) had successfully died lately due to the quality of this garbage I had to buy a M1 model. The virutal machine configured for this purpose was based on Virtual Box which is if I understand correctly doesn't work very well on M1 and so far there are no plans to make it work there. So I am still looking for good alternative option to make it run at least this way. If you have some advice I would be happy to hear.
* What is the 'safest' or 'correct' way to backup the whole rM and be sure that you can restore it without a danger to brick it completely.
* How to connect BT Keyboard and configure it properly.
* All these 'issues' basically about how to make it usable for programming.
If you have any good solutions/ideas about those issues please share.
Positives:
* Build quality feels great.
* Screen is super responsive when writing. And responsive enough when flipping pages (although I am not familiar with the state of the art ebook readers).
* Pen feels really good against the surface. After one day of getting used to it, it started feeling as natural as paper for me.
* Hacker friendly: Tick a box under "settings" and it gives you the root password, and you just plug in a USB cable and SSH in as you please. Inside is a pretty standard Busybox-based Linux. All the cloud gizmos are optional. See also https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
* Eternal battery life and perfect viewing angles and everything else you'd expect from this kind of screen.
Negatives:
* I would have like the screen to be just a liiiittle bit bigger. Some papers on A4 paper with smaller fonts cause me to squint a little unless I zoom in to crop out the margins (and if the margins aren't the same on each page, that's annoying).
* The upselling price of the nice carrying cases and the "fancy" pen are a bit ridiculous. Thankfully, the fancy pen isn't really that useful to me, because I prefer the fill-erase mode anyway.
* I often accidentally hit the power on button when carrying the thing.
* I know they're trying to minimize physical buttons, but I would personally have loved a physical button (preferably on the pen!) to flip into (fill-)erase mode.
The device comes with SSH enabled by default, with a randomly-generated password in the settings menu. Its main UI is a proprietary app, but there is a vibrant community of open-source "hacks"[2] ranging from binary patches adding features to the stock UI to a fully libre replacement OS based on Parabola[3]. Its USB port works in host mode, so you can plug in a keyboard and use it as a terminal. I've been meaning to make a nice cover for it with a built-in keyboard like the MS Surface devices.
[1]: https://remarkable.com/ [2]: https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable [3]: http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/
Sorry I didn't answer your question exactly but reMarkable (I am not affiliated btw) seems quite cool. I am sad it is a bit too expensive for me to justify the purchase.
[0] https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2 [1] https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable [2] https://github.com/danielebruneo/remarkable2-hacks#remarkabl...
> the ReMarkable is even more Closed than my MobiScribe, fail.
The ReMarkable is comparatively very hackable and open, see for example https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable/. It doesn't have a backlight though, that's true.
The customers at the top of the preorder queue for v2 got their tablets about a month ago[1] so the number of people able to write such a review will be limited for the next month or so.
Worth noting there is open source tooling for modding/ssh access to remarkable tablets[2].
[1] https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/36000264587...
Ah, someone beat me to posting it.
>No, it is. I decide what's affordable or acceptable for me. In any case, are you really implying that one's economic situation is invariable? That owning a certain piece of hardware automatically makes you economically buoyant? Too many wrong presuppositions. On top of that, I find it expensive based on other factors, especially it being "something that you can do by yourself with just a bit more effort."
I'll reproduce the comment here. It's incredible it's been flagged. But, well, that's HN for you: lots of aggressive comments full of fallacies, censorship through downvotes and flagging, and almost no arguments, only ferocious defenses of firm personal ideologies.
The "author" is in his right to put a price tag on an OS--or on anything that he so desires--that is in any case heavily incompatible with the device it's been ported to, but that will make it more difficult for others to make it actually useful through improving on it and adapting it to the ReMarkable--which has a good hobbyist community behind it that puts out very good software (https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable) for free, even when it's usually much more thought out and vastly more useful than that Parabola port. I would've put it out for free and accepted voluntary donations, as I always do, but that's me.
I understand what you mean but it makes me uncomfortable.
> there are plenty of people who are hacking on it.
https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable Has many great examples indeed.
I was remembering mostly as binary patches on the UI components and it seems that it developed further, with source project on GitHub... I feel a lot more comfortable with this kind of community than with Android mods, which always felt like colourful forum posts Over git, binary packages over source and leet speak over documentation.
In the mean time, no one has come with a way to export Apple iOS notes to markdown + images.
e-reader app ports, screen mirroring, full OS replacements, etc. It's a relatively niche device so of course there are significant gaps in what's available, but it's active and the depth is fairly impressive.
Check https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable for more open source projects.