Image courtesy of reMarkable
Of those is in know, reMarkable 2 tablets are shipping. For those who don’t know about reMarkable, they are a Norwegian company that make minimalist, e-ink, notetaking tablets.
It is in the second generation—the thinnest tablet in the world at that. There are many criticisms of the device because it doesn’t do much more than let your write, read, and annotate. While that is the point, being distraction free, one could feel limited by such a device.
I have picked on up recently but I have not yet posted my review. I need time with it—to understand it, fit it into my workflow, and see if it is worth the price tag of an iPad.
But here are a few thoughts:
Is there no room for dedicated devices in our digital world? Or do all digital devices have to be so broadly general computing apparatus like iPad devices?
Can having an iPad with Apple Pencil completely remove one’s need for other notetaking forms?
Are notebooks (paper) completely gone from our lives? Can we replace them with something dedicated to the same task and with more functions like cloud syncing?
I recently picked up and reviewed an Amazon Kindle during the COVID Lockdown. Never did I think I would want to read on it more rather than my iPad Pro but it has found a unique place in my life and heart. It is a ‘Goldilocks’ device for the purpose it was designed.
And to consider this further, what about other devices that we have used for, in some cases, decades and don’t scoff at the idea that they still exist today even in the age of computers, tablets, and smartphones.
| Analog | "Goldilocks" | Digital |
|---|---|---|
| Book | Kindle | iPad |
| Abacus | Calculator | MacBook Pro |
| Notebook | reMarkable | iPad Pro |
The “Three R’s” in analog through digital forms.
Perhaps we are all so bewildered by dedicated digital notetaking devices because they haven’t really been available to us in the past—that reMarkable tablets (and others like it) are just so new we haven’t accepted them yet.
I recall a friend of mine when I got my first smartphone, a Blackberry 7100t, saying, “I don’t want to be that available all the time.” Yet, today, she and I both have iPhone 11 Pro devices.