Gotta say, ya missed the big point of Rocketbook. You can just wipe the pages clean with a damp towel, so your notebook effectively lasts forever. Oh, and it actually integrates with things (there’s little icons on the page, and you can set up various destinations based on which icons you check on the page). Plus it works with Frixion pens, which are not a Rocketbook thing, but rather a Pilot erasable ink thing which is widely available and fairly cheap. I’ve had a Rocketbook for years now, I don’t use it as often as I should but every time I do I’m reminded why I love it.
This was a very interesting discussion. I have a friend with a remarkable 2 and I was interested in it for reviewing papers. I was put off by the price, but also because when I review papers I always want to compare two sheets side by side.
What I had not considered was how I do a lot of maths and other general brainstorming is very similar to what Jono was describing. i.e. scribble a lot and then type up later. The reliance on their server, and the price still make it no for me. Paper is fine for now, but maybe if the price comes down and they support other ways to get your data back (actually can I just get the notes via SSH? that sounds ideal).
The “perfect” solution (if someone else is paying), is what I had put in my office when I worked in the US. It was a normal dry erase whiteboard, but one of those ones that scrolls so you can get to both sides on a loop of whiteboard material. It was then motorised so you could get to the other side at the press of a button. But it has a built-in 4 colour scanner in the frame. It was basically the best of both worlds between the rocketbook and the remarkable 2: It was totally analogue, but press one button and it was saved as a PDF. The downsides are it takes up a whole wall, cost a lot of money, and they don’t seem to sell them anymore.
On the topic of small hardware companies creating a third party software ecosystem, the pebble smart watch managed it. They made their API available, hosted people’s apps and lots of enthusiastic pebble owners made watch faces and apps. I don’t remember if any third party companies built apps though.
You might consider looking at Rocketbook beacons. They’re neat little things that you stick to any existing whiteboard and then you can use the Rocketbook app to digitize the whiteboard and save it through all the existing channels. I’ve been thinking of getting a set, except that I only have a tiny whiteboard in my home office and I basically never use it.
Not quite O/T, but been looking for a related solution to a problem I have.
I been using Miro for my Masters study & got a Surface Pro so that I can have a decent portable notebook/notepad for design, sketching, note-taking & such.
Quite digging OneNote, but all of these bits are lacking key parts I really need to get the job done.
I’m in need of a ‘whiteboard’ app - infinite canvas where I can drop arbitrary content - images, pages, diagrams, etc - and have others collaborate on it for co-design sessions.
Importantly is that it needs to be workable offline - something Miro can’t do - and able to import/export/group/ungroup/manipulate vectors (SVG’s & PDF’s), so that ideas/designs can be disassembled/reassembled - something OneNote cannot to.
I would REALLY like to know if anyone has found a suitable solution capable of accomplishing the above. Ideally I would prefer a (self-hosted) Open Source solution, but I’m desperate enough that I’m willing to fork out to purchase a licence for something that meet my needs.
I’ve used the Rocketbook - the one you wipe clean - and found it to be fine, save on two counts. First of all, if you wipe several pages at once, or like me, fill the whole thing then wipe every page in one go, it’s a bugger to get it to dry properly.
Sure the pages face up dry, but all the others stick together, unless you dry each double leaf meticulously. Then you have to go through 3 or 4 times to get it all dry and clean.
2nd thing - after about 10 “cycles” as it were, the pages get inherently greasy from sweaty-boy palms (or that may be just me). So probably needs a deep clean once in a while. And yes, the pens are just waterbased things, the ones that you can erase. About a quid each from Amazon. As you write, make a blob in the right area on each page, and notes via the app will upload to Evernote, Google Drive, email, whathaveyou.
What I use now is Xournal++ with a Wacom tablet: takes handwritten notes on screen so you can stare at the person you’re talking to on Zoom etc. (as far as they’re concerned) and make notes at same time. I’m sure you could find some handwriting OCR too if you look around, but I’ve used it in the past with Rocketbook, in fact, and it’s not worth the bother, for me. Though again, my handwriting is prolly shit.
Two penn’orth ends.
I got a rocketbook for the new year and so far (a month of use) I’m loving it!
I don’t care too much about scanning the notes, the main selling point for me was its reusability. In a certain way it’s just a glorified whiteboard I can easily carry around.
The frixion pens are very comfortable to write with, that’s another plus.
They are not “infinitely” reusable though, that’s too much of a stretch. I am expecting to change them with the same frequency I change phones which isn’t much but you get the point; I am happy if it lasts for 2 years at least.
Yeah, it only lasts forever if it’s kept pristine! At least when I spill tea or coffee that wipes up easily (unlike regular paper) but certains times of year I have moisturizer on an IV drip and that wrecks the Rocketbook pages. Then, back when I was in the office, I would get odd looks for washing my notebook in a soap filled sink!
I also use some destination symbols more than others and the wear shows.
Mine is going on three years and can probably last another two before I can’t work-around the wear-and-tear any more.
A good accessory for the Rocketbook would be a dishwasher rack that kept the pages separated so you could put it in the dishwasher and then leave it out to air dry. I know, 1st world problem!
Their price point is a bit rich for my blood, but I find the Remarkable tablets fascinating in theory. I like e-ink a lot, and I like the idea of an e-ink tablet.
I still think it’s not unreasonable to want reader-type things on it.
And, I think it’s still in an alpha- and beta-stage, but I know that there are KOReader builds for Remarkable tablets.
And KOReader is awesome - it’s my preferred way of reading epub/mobi or PDF period, whether on an e-ink tablet, or an Android tablet or an Android phone. (They even have an AppImage for desktop Linux, but it’s pretty clear that’s more aimed at developers than really as a desktop solution, sadly.)
And, in terms of a sci-fi ‘portal to knowledge’ device, KOReader has lots of bells and whistles you can use: a Wikipedia interface (there’s your Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), and it talks to Wallabag servers and can download your saved webpages [Wallabag is service sort of like Pinboard or Pocket, though it can be self-hosted (but they run their own server too)].
Anyway, once it’s more stable on the Remarkable (if it’s not already - as I said, I don’t own one myself), KOReader I think could add a lot of potential to the Remarkable.
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