Of all places to see a gadget, I first saw the reMarkable tablet on Facebook. Curious, I followed the link and watched it several times over the next few weeks, finally pre-ordering the rM2 about a month later. As delivery was months away, I purchased the rM1 and have been delighted with it. My reMarkable 2 just arrived and works fine.
The reMarkable is an e-ink tablet roughly the same size as iPads™ and other tablets (screen is 8 x 6). (think a large Kindle you can write on) The screen is monochrome (black and white) – no colors – and the writing surface is ‘textured’ so that when moving the stylus across it one gets the feel of writing on paper. Rather than detail the features more, look at the reMarkable website or YouTube™ videos.
As with any technology, different people and professions use it in different ways. I’ll describe how I use it as a lawyer. My world is a lot of words and paper. And before reMarkable, a whole lot of yellow tablets.
Those yellow tablets were problematic – which tablet did I take notes for client X on? where is it? Etc. With reMarkable, all handwritten notes are now taken on one device (and synced with other devices) and since all notes have the client name in the document title, relatively easy to find. I can email my notes if I need to (although the email interface is a bit klunky).
reMarkable has desktop apps – both Apple and Windows – and sync is automatic from the cloud where all notes are stored in addition to the device itself. In fact, with the desktop app my two assistants could (but don’t – yet) follow my notes without too much lag from when I write them. As it is, my assistants can read my notes about the client/file they’re working on and (subject to legibility issues) know what I intend. And of course, my notes can be exported from the desktop app to the client’s data folder in my office.
PDF files can be uploaded to the reMarkable through the desktop – simply drag-n-drop to the appropriate folder. Within the reMarkable the pdf can be annotated, underlined, highlighted, etc. I’m now able to take a document sent to me for signature, move it to the reMarkable, edit any phrases I want, initial and sign all pages, then export the signed pdf file back to my desktop and email it back, keeping a copy in the client data folder. No ‘paper’ wasted.
A real timesaver I’ve discovered is reconciling bank accounts – most of my accounts are at one bank, and I can download as pdf the transactions across all accounts. Using the reMarkable, I can ‘check off’ all transactions for the accounts.
reMarkable has features I don’t use but are worth noting:
Can other gadgets do this? Yes – even with iPads there is a cover that can be put on it that sort of mimics the paper feel – but the iPad had other distractions. rM is focused on notes rather than a multitude of functions – a one-trick pony, not the circus. But it does that one trick VERY well.
For those that have to hand-write notes a lot, this gadget is worth serious consideration. For me it is a game changer. And there’s a Facebook community that provides some q&a on its use.
Dec 2020===================
Ross C. Hart [VSB15888]
HART & HART ATTORNEYS, LTD.
40 W. Main Street; PO Box 567
Salem, Virginia 24153
540.375.3281; Fax/540.375.7677
rch@hhatty.com OR ross.hhatty@gmail.com