{"id":342526,"date":"2017-06-02T03:05:59","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T19:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1498497"},"modified":"2017-06-02T03:05:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T19:05:59","slug":"the-remarkable-tablet-is-original-and-ambitious-unlike-pretty-much-all-the-other-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/the-remarkable-tablet-is-original-and-ambitious-unlike-pretty-much-all-the-other-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"The reMarkable tablet is original and ambitious, unlike pretty much all the other ones"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Years ago I called for a black and white computer<\/a>, and that strange desire still lives within me today. While no one has yet taken me up on this amazing idea, the monochrome devices that do exist have improved, yet are still frustratingly limited in their capabilities. That\u2019s why the reMarkable<\/a> tablet is such a pleasure to me. They went full e-paper.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been following it since the announcement late last year, you\u2019ll know the reMarkable is a sort of Kindle on steroids, a digital notebook that\u2019s made to imitate as closely as possible the experience of writing on paper \u2014 but with all the advantages of modern tech.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now, I didn\u2019t get a hands-on with a prototype the way several other outlets did (a hazard of working in the remote Pacific Northwest), so I\u2019ll be waiting for the final device before I render a final opinion on whether the reMarkable accomplishes what it sets out to do. But I want to put down for the record that I\u2019m rooting for them.<\/p>\n

I talked with co-founders Magnus Wanberg and Mats Solberg, CEO and chief design officer, respectively. They seemed a lot like myself: nostalgic for the undeniable qualities of paper, excited about the prospects of e-paper devices and disappointed with existing options.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our opinion as really hardcore paper people, none of them really work,\u201d Wanberg said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the same experience, not for writing, not for reading, not for sketching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last couple of years they worked to augment the capabilities of e-paper displays, tweaking this and that, improving software and trying different interaction methods. All this, it must be said, while tablet and Kindle sales weren\u2019t making any headlines. I admire the determination to move forward with a project even though it isn\u2019t part of some accelerating trend.<\/p>\n

The lower the latency between touch and response, the more natural writing would feel. Ultimately they were able to nearly halve the latency of the latest e-paper displays, down to about 55 milliseconds \u2014 the iPad\u2019s pen latency, for the record, is 50 ms.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a major accomplishment, and one that impressed E Ink enough that the two companies began working together. And the other aspects of the tablet \u2014 its Wacom-like passive pen with tilt and pressure support, its layer support for documents (critical), its thoughtful material choice \u2014 are also welcome.<\/p>\n

But the technical achievement is secondary, I think, to the vision of a useful product that doesn\u2019t fit within any existing popular buckets.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The reMarkable is built from the ground up to be black and white, to handle and share documents and sketches and to be a comfortable, paper-like environment lacking the cumbrousness of Windows or the constant pushes from Amazon to buy more everything. It\u2019s made to do several specific things well, and within the limitations of a monochrome touch display.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted the product to represent the sort of\u2026 limitlessness of paper,\u201d said Solberg. \u201cThere\u2019s no branding, no bells and whistles or LCDs.\u201d<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t a Kindle on steroids, and it isn\u2019t a hipster iPad. It\u2019s very much its own thing, and that\u2019s not common with new devices.<\/p>\n

The specifics of the device, how it handles and whether it\u2019s as useful as I think it will be \u2014 those can wait until this summer, when I should have a full review of final hardware before the reMarkable ships. For now, you can learn more at the reMarkable site<\/a> or pre-order one for $479.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Years ago I called for a black and white computer, and that strange desire still lives within me today. While no one has yet taken me up on this amazing idea, the monochrome devices that do exist have improved, yet are still frustratingly limited in their capabilities. That’s why the reMarkable tablet is such a pleasure to me. They went full e-paper. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-342526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}