General > General Technical Chat
Does anyone here use E ink / e-Paper tablets for their daily writing tasks?
Halcyon:
I've been considering a tablet to replace my current pen, notepad and many post-it notes. I prefer to handwrite notes as opposed to type them using a keyboard, particularly in meetings or where I just need to make a quick list. I'd like a device that mimics the tactile feel of traditional pen and paper (no smooth glass displays) and has long battery life (this is where E Ink has the advantage). I don't need anything as full blown as an Android or Apple tablet (although email, Microsoft Teams and calendar functionality would be nice, but not a deal-breaker).
I was considering the BOOX Note Air 2, as it ticks a lot of boxes, however I'm disappointed to find out (not surprisingly) that being a Chinese company, the device constantly "phones home" and communicates with servers belonging to Tencent. Additionally the manufacturer continues to violate GPL2 license by refusing to release source code for their modified version of the kernel. That alone rings too many alarm bells for me and I'm not prepared to risk having information leak without my knowledge/consent. Using it offline is not an option (some of the applications even require internet connectivity to work). These security risks rule out any BOOX/Onyx tablet for me.
Two of the others on my short list are the reMarkable2 and the Supernote A5 X. Hardware-wise, the reMarkable is a nice device, however the software lets it down. In order to get the best out of an already limited feature set, you need to pay a monthly subscription fee, which I'm not prepared to pay.
Just curious what others are using?
Brumby:
For me, it's usually pen and paper. If I need something (brief) time-stamped, I just send myself a SMS. If I'm sitting at my computer, I might be tempted to type something - if it needs to be recorded for posterity.
...but my life these days has far less need for a formal solution. Meetings are few and far between.
Muttley Snickers:
I can talk faster than I can type :blah:....so I often use either a portable voice recorder or my mobile phone for taking notes on the go. I've also been known to talk faster than I can think which often gets me into trouble. :palm:
Halcyon:
--- Quote from: Muttley Snickers on July 18, 2022, 06:47:32 am ---I can talk faster than I can type :blah:....so I often use either a portable voice recorder or my mobile phone for taking notes on the go. I've also been known to talk faster than I can think which often gets me into trouble. :palm:
--- End quote ---
I spend long enough in meetings listening to be people crap on needlessly. I just need the short version ;-)
ebastler:
I have been using a reMarkable 2 for 1.5 years now. Got it before they introduced their subscription scheme, so I have the cloud services for free; and my company paid for it, so the steep price tag did not affect me personally. (No pen included in the standard price, and the nice pen costs 129 Euro -- really?!) I would not buy one for personal use, although I like writing on it:
The feel when writing is very nice. The surface is textured just right, and the replaceable pen tips actually wear off (slowly; they last 2..3 months for me) for a pencil-like feel. They have figured out the control of the e-Ink display surprisingly well; writing and erasing work in real time and feel quite natural. The ability to create virtual notebooks and group them in folders is nice to keep things organized, and the choice of many different page templates (lines, grids, lists...) is neat.
Progress on the software has been quite slow; I assume the software team is just a few people. You can read the software release notes to get an idea of the small steps they take. There is no useable handwriting recognition -- you can request "on demand" recognition of a single page at a time to have it emailed to someone. The recognition performance is poor. Not just for my handwriting, I assume; there must be a reason why they don't offer OCR in the background for all pages...
I am also concerned about reMarkable's long-term perspective as a company. It is essentially a single-product company, the product does not seem to be taking off like crazy, and there are various low-cost competitors from China. (Although they probably don't work as well.) It is reassuring to know that I could still pull my notes off the tablet via a local USB connection, even if they pull the plug on their server...
Two colleagues of mine use regular iPads for note-taking. One of them feels comfortable writing on the glossy screen, the other uses a matte adhesive foil for a better writing feel. If Remarkable keels over at some point and/or I need to replace my current device, that's probably what I would get. Not as optimized for handwriting, and with a shorter battery life -- but a lot of extra functionality, and a safer bet regarding long-term support.
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