This is a great change. Good to see them walk this awful decision back. If they hadn't made this change in the first place, I probably would have bought a remarkable 2 but after they announced the changes, I went with a Supernote instead and love it.
ReMarkable user here and completely agree with your analysis - glad to see them backpedal on what was pretty shameless behaviour but also really want to see an option for local backup and sync - can't see any good reason why the ReMarkable couldn't automatically sync directly to my desktop app on the same network, and update a local copy of all the files there so I could manage this myself. One of the important considerations for any device is how much would remain usable if the company stopped supporting it. A premium piece of hardware should be profitable to sell - if a company wants to offer services for it that should be an optional extra, not an integral feature
4 year user here. Finally they are stopping their commercial suicide. Depending on what they do next step, I may recommend it again to friends on day. I have been telling colleague this whole year don't buy, when they see me use the screen sharing feature in meetings. I have done a lot of good product feature PR and negative company business PR for them.
Mr. Dimitrijevic, Once again, an excellent video, thank you. I pre-ordered a reMarkable 2, and paid for it in full. When the company failed to meet its originally-touted shipping date, I let them keep my money. Entirely on account of my following your channel (which I recommend everyone to do) around that time your videos about reMarkable the company, and the reMarkable 2 in particular, persuaded me to seek a refund. With the refunded money I bought an Onyx Boox Nova 2 (which arrived the next day, and with which, from day one, I have been very pleased). Even better, it was £60 (GBP) cheaper than the reMarkable 2. All this, and more, I owe to your excellent work.
Thank you very much for your support and for sharing your experiences. That kind of thing really helps potential buyers to make an informed decision, and it helps me gain a wider perspective of what the user experience is with these companies and products :)
I agree with your comments. The subscription as designed was terrible and damaging. My biggest beef is no user templates allowed without hacking. I would do it except it gets destroyed on an update. We have to be vigilant. All companies in all industries are moving to a subscription model. An auto company will offer seat warmers as a subscription. Pretty soon many automobiles features will need to be unlocked with a subscription. Many other consumer products now come with a subscription. We have to refuse to purchase to end this madness.
This is a great update! Thanks! I really hope you keep posting these. When I bought this device, I think my main interest has been in the fact that they are using a (mostly) open software base for the device, even though everything around it has been anything but that. It's really good to see that the company, slowly but surely, is coming back around to realizing why people bought this device in the first place. For a while I really felt like they were trying their best to force a closed ecosystem around an open base os. Of course, being aware of the openness, I immediately abandoned their ecosystem, to get and make unofficial improvements. But that has been so time consuming to research and compile.
Voja, please keep making your thorough videos. I love your unique style. They are long but contain great observations and value. I bought a remarkable this week and this is after having had my eye on this device since version one. First the £500 device price, then the connect subscription at £7.99 GBP/month helped me to resist my curiosity and impulse last year. Continued software development needs to be funded but your observation that value to cost ratio needs to be reasonable hits the nail on the head. Coming from iPad Pro using the Notes App, I am still in two minds of whether to keep the reMarkable or send it back. I have such a strong urge to reduce my screen time but I need the reMarkable to be a serious work device. My requirements are in priority: 1) I can not loose any notes. Doesn't matter if they are 50 days or several years old. (A moleskine could last me 2 months - shocking to diminish your own value proposition like that) 2) I need to easily find my notes - When did they introduce the tag feature? Tags are the bare minimum. For me giving up the iPads written text search feature, I only consider to support David vs. Goliath but heck you should have something on the road map to fill the void. 3) Easily sharing your content with others must surely be hugely important in most professional settings - the marketing doesn't suggest this is a toy gadget 4) Templates - that this has not been addressed in years actually rings all alarm bells with me - This is actually an area of huge differentiation opportunity to other forms of digital note taking. Imagine they would strike a strategic partnership with e.g. canva.com or a similar vendor 5) eBook reader - not supporting amazon, I won't argue about but could someone enlighten me of where I would buy ePubs without DRM? Is reMarkable hoping to be slaughtered by amazon? If eInk is not for reading, then I don't know. Reflective LCD is coming. 6) Security - this should actually top the list - any European business should have heard of GDPR by now - I thought this device is aimed at professionals. What professions can afford not to think about data security? A 4 digit pin, that's it?- really? If they won't make a serious investment in software development now to differentiate or get bought by someone else big, they will be dead within the next two years.
You are just great. Balanced, honest and wise. Thank you so much for all your videos and your My Daily Organiser. I have 2022 and was so very happy with it that I snapped up the 2023. Keep up the good work x
My favorite thing about UA-cam: Voja having positive news of reMarkable! Having lived through the recent passing of Vin Scully - the best sportscaster ever (for my local Los Angeles Dodgers), his buttery voice and delivery pace were amazing. You are the closest orator I have heard that comes close to Vin. Thanks for continuing to keep us informed of the reMarkable changes.
Good summary of the change. One thing that was not covered in their roadmap was the whole area of collaboration. Teams working on the same document or even an executive sharing files with his/her admin.
Good news, but as you say, incomplete. I bought my Remarkable 2 late last year when my Remarkable 1 died - just after Connectgate. I was disappointed to discover the limitations, but I refuse to submit to Connect blackmail. I agree with you that it's absurd that I can't store my work in its native form given the tablet's miniscule memory.
All of this makes me nervous though - what if they backtrack again? When all of this was first announced I was seriously very close to buying a RM2. Now, for me, it's going to take them 3 to 5 years of "doing the right thing" for them to even have a shot of having me as a customer again.
I bought a Supernote A5X and it was delivered literally 1 day after remarkable 2 backtracked on their connect stuff. I was highly considering remarkable 2, so they lost at least one sale.
Decisions made by reMarkable on pricing may have something to do with how they got a lot of their money to mass produce the RMII. Ot seems that they procured a decent among of investment capital. Investment firms want to see a lot of effort put into to capital procurement. This does not take the ownership of the bad plan away from reMarkable, but I believe it provides a more complete understanding.
@@Dr_Cole remarkables sole purpose is to be profitable and once they go public they will keep having their interest in increasing share holder value so they will continue making profit related decisions, as a customer you don't want to be caught up in the middle of that because they will keep releasing new devices regularly making yours obsolete to get you to spend more
Such a confusing model (the connect - non connect). As you said, improvement from last madness. Though, not a surprise when you hit so low. However, somehow still not clear to me what you should expect in the free Vs non-free version in the future. Also, that "limited-unlimited" storage is absolutely a disaster. I am a legacy user so no direct consequences for me but I still find difficult to reccomend it to friends given their choices in the last year. It takes a while to regain trust...
Thanks Voja for this video. If I try to summerize : 1. how can a company imagine and design a computing system with no way for the user to backup its datas locally ?!! 2. A roadmap ?? Whow ! Is Remarkable finally getting out of its garage to become a serious company (but... still the 1st point) ? 🤔
Thank you for explaining and summarizing the news. This is good to see, but yeah I agree, we really should have a way to backup locally... I think you can still just copy the files and then put them back. But my question is, us early buyers aren't gonna get this new Connect are we? 13:50 Yes!
A few colleagues of mine asked me about my reMarkable and if i like it and if i would recommend it - and my answer was always yes i like it but i would not recommend it for new users because of thier shitty subscription and that normal features are hidden behind that subscription. if they stay on track i may can recommend the reMarkable again
I was a pre-order owner but my IT dept wouldn't allow its use so my granddaughter is now the proud owner and loves it. It would be good if you could get an Amazon Scribe and do a review comparing with the rM2.
I wonder if the lack of ability to export documents in their native format is because it would allow users to bypass the 50 day requirement on file storage. Presumably, users could back up periodically to an external source and then reupload without exporting or changing format. Those documents would then be "new" and stored in the Remarkable cloud. I suppose I'm just suggesting that this could be a "feature" (from their perspective) rather than a bug...
I have to wonder if some of these changes might also have something to do with the rumoured Amazon e-ink note taking tablet; the rumours are that this tablet could be announced any time. If a big company like Amazon releases a comparable tablet with similar features outside of a subscription model, it could pose problems for Remarkable as a company. The movement towards Supernote demonstrates how this could happen. I’d be interested in trying a Remarkable, but the subscription model and the high price of the compatible pen and folios have prevented me from doing so.
If Amazon ever does release an eNote device, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will be good. Look at Kobo Elipsa as an example. These companies are stuck in eReader mentality which doesn't translate well for note taking needs, so it remains to be seen what Amazon's approach will be, in this case.
I think Amazon is more likely to buy out Remarkable and release it under amazon brand. Or leave Remarkable alone and say they will like to release it with amazon brand at a discount (similar to how their basic Amazon monitor mounts are actually Ergotron in disguise, a much more expensive mount, and the manual that comes with the Amazon mount says Ergotron on it - utmost in laziness). Amazon has kindle, they would probably want to make remarkindle.
Don't forget that in this hypothetical scenario Amazon's Rekindle would have ads if you don't have the Connect subscription :D Ye godz. I think we've all took a wrong turn on October 23rd, 2000...
Amazon have announced the pre-order of the Scribe for delivery on 30 November and the cost of the top of the range model is £409 so a real competition for the rM2 now. The pen is included in the cost and isn't a separate charge.
So interesting... They are flipping their behavior to finally go back to where they should have been to start with. Also interesting that I got two sets of Remarkable ads during this u tube session...
Well, it's the end of the year and Remarkable's ad machine has been fed a lot of money and Remarkable ads can now be seen everywhere you look. They do it every November and December, and they especially will need to rely on that this year, because Amazon Scribe is coming in a few weeks, and that has a strong potential to disrupt Remarkable's sales.
@@MyDeepGuide To true - trying to get the most they can before Scribe is released. I own the Remarkable 2, but have favored the Boox Max Lumi 2 now for the last year - I like the larger size (both my old eyes and my size of writing) and full android OS. What I would love to see is a proper hand writing to do list app - one where completed items are archived with the date/time completed, the addition of sub tasks, and the ability to constantly re prioritize the remaining items. Can't find one that isn't a type in vs hand writing. I would use that app all day every day! Thank you, as always, for your insights and advice! Keep making great MDG reviews!😀
Kindle Scribe rumor was out 4 months ago… and that seemed to made the rM marketing wizards to replay the old tape before completely sinking. Am I wrong or not that much?
I don't think that you are wrong at all, especially with the timing of it all :) But I don't know how much it will help anyone this season, when a giant like Kindle wakes up and decides to take a piece of the pie. If Amazon didn't mess up (and so far it doesn't look like they did) then the existing players in the eNote world should observe carefully and readjust their projections and plans accordingly.
Same here. Returned it the day before this press release. They could have sent us returners a quick note of their road map and I could have waited. One good thing though, two days after mailing it to HKG, it was already received. The refund took another two days. This is indeed brilliant service.
Thank you for all the content you do on the Remarkable 2. So useful. Is there a way to delete document on the Tablet but still have it on the Desktop App?
I ended up getting the Supernote 5x a few months back thanks too vids here and gorilla physics channel, originally wanted the remarkable and probably would of gotten that if they did this change back then. Still glad I didn’t go with the remarkable
There seems to have been a little storm that swept through the office of the CEO and head of marketing. Some woke up. Hope they stay awake! Thanks Voja.
We'll see. Considering that the press kit that they issued to the media is a link to a cloud repository that contains all of the standard stuff that you'd normally get, but also a dedicated folder called "Images of CEO" where you can find images of the Remarkable's CEO there, I'm not sure common sense rules apply. I've literally never seen that from any other company or press kit before. Kinda says a lot.
Great video as always, Voja! Thanks for the summary. I agree that the high subscription cost was not a good business move but I'm not sure if I agree when you mention around 17:56 that the $7.99 "pure greed." Businesses need continuous profits to pay their employees, fund R&D, expand, etc and I'm not sure what the margins are on the hardware. We also don't know that the new cost makes the cloud service still profitable per se, but I imagine it was a necessary move because of weaker-than-expected sales on their hardware over the past several months. Thanks for your detailed videos!
Thank you for watching :) I would agree, but the reasoning you offered doesn't fit the fact that now they are able to offer more for free and for a 60% lower subscription fee. Even by making all of the features free again, and lowering the subscription fee to 2.99 USD, they are able to afford it. So think about it logically, what that means about their previous move and pricing scheme.
Hi Voja @My Deep Guide , just seen Amazon is presenting Kindle Scribe. Will be able to outperform RM2 ? And maybe could the Scribe news the reason why the RM guys changed subscriptions conditions ?!
I own a Remarkable2. I got in early, so my Connect subscription was included and it didn't effect me when they rolled it out. I don't have much to complain about, other than Remarkable being a slightly sh*tty company. That said, they act a lot like a company that wont be around for a long time. I hope I'm wrong, but it feels like a house with a _lot_ of bad ideas.
I am so glad I never bought a Remarkable…. But only because of the company. Not the device. I wish the device and customer were treated better. I would buy it if… but I have become jaded.
I’m really torn between the RM2 & the Supernote A5X. I just started paying attention and building interest in these notepad replacement tablets in the past week, and after watching over a dozen YT vids, I’m still going back and forth on which one of these two I want to get. Can someone with working knowledge help lean me in an even more informed direction? Aesthetically, I really like the look of RM2 over the SN. I’m not a sketch artist but occasionally I need some room for doodling with my IT job. I’m very big on planners and lists and random thoughts I want to jot down. The other two things that are important to me as are the ease of creating tags&favorites to quickly recall notes via searching key words; I feel like the SN leans better that way? Also, not a deal breaker, but an advantage, is being able to sync my google calendar with my notepad tablet; again, I believe the SN has the functionality over RM2? What also is important to me will be annotating and transferring PDF files for work between tablet laptop; I believe both RM2 & SN get this job done? I’m not too concerned with the price of each, and not overly concerned with the (new) $2.99 Connect subscription fee after a year. Can someone with working knowledge or either or both help point me in either direction?
I have both RM2, A5X and Boox Lumi 1, and I write alot, using E-ink as my notebook and sketchpad and write a lot of mathematical things. To be honest, writing on A5X feels much better than on RM2. Because A5X has a layer of soft membrane on the surface, making it's writing experience the one and only level comfortable while other hard surface E-ink tablets make your wrist and palm sore after going through a chapter of math problems. But now RM2 can insert blank note pages into PDF documents, like on iPad with Notability and this seems to be only viable on RM2 if you compare between most E-ink devices. So all in all, if editing pdf files is your top prioriety, and you mostly just annotate pdf files, not creating them, then go RM2. But if you write a lot, like a STEM student writing on paper that a lot, then go A5X and save yourself from carpal tunnel(lol).
If I purchased the rm2 before the whole "connect" disaster and didn't update until now, would I have access to "connect" for free or just the 'free' plan? Anyway, thank you so much for your content! Greetings from Germany :)
All users who registered their account before the introduction of Connect subscription plans were automatically upgraded to the Connect plan. That is bound to your account, not to your device :)
@@MyDeepGuide As an A5X and RM2 owner... I just pre-ordered the scribe. Hard to beat free delivery and return as an Amazon Prime member, with 30 day return window.
I really liked Remarkable and was sad to have to look elsewhere - however, I have learned to appreciate my Boox device - so I have no reason to move back to Remarkable - though I am happy for all the Remarkable users who stuck it out - I wish you all well!
I don’t understand this at all. The whole point of a distraction-free environment is to be able to use the device without distraction, not integrate it into being able to use it with devices full of distraction. Glad they caved with some of the pricing but the software direction they’re going in baffles me as is seems to go against a lot of their initial philosophy of creating a distraction free environment.
what is, in your opinion, the best writing and reading tablet. I have remarkable 2 and use it for architecture with field notes, quick sketches, etc. but am a bit disappointing that remarkable 2, for the price, is limited and the subscription fee was another turnoff especially when I already have cloud backup with google and drop box
The lack of an SD card and 8 gb of storage just show they made an entry point to sell a subscription, not a product. I was interested in a large form ereader, and I've come to the conclusion the only one I'll be ok with is one that is just running android.
Hello there! I’m asking the community because I have an issue with my RM2: it fell on the ground and the power button got stuck on off! It is now unusable! Do you have any advice on how to fix it? Thanks in advance!
Remarkable's subscription model was very ill-considered, but I wouldn't call it a "money grab." All companies (and all employees who accept salaries) are trying to earn money. That a company makes a bad business decision does not somehow taint its pursuit of profit per se. If the company tries to defraud its users or rob a bank, yes, I'd call that a money grab. Providing a value in exchange for payment is not a money grab.
That really is the rub, isn't it? The subscription didn't really offer anything new. It promised new features later. It took things away from future users that existing users already had access to.
With their 100 days free return policy I wonder how many used devices they have on stock and what they do with them… I would have kept mine but returned - I was just afraid the company may bankrupt (with that lack of brain in the management) and I won’t be able to use the services at all anymore.
Hi, I'm basically looking for an e-reader to read and take notes on my book with the stylus. That's it! I already have the onyx note air and the notes overlap on the text, get lost and sometimes are represented by a pictogram (I read several books at the same time, so the display size between the books changes...) Do you know if on the remarkable 2, there is the same problem? Thannnnnnks a lot
This is all an reaction to the upcoming kindle scribe... I love the remarkable 2, but if the kindle scribe follows in the legacy of the kindle ereaders, but adds writing and document syncing... then remarkable is dead in the water. EDIT: 64GB and amazon customer service... oh boy, oh boy.
I for one am relieved that Remarkable has come around and fixed this snafu. Re: local backup - Can't you just copy the file to your computer from the remarkable app, at whatever point you want, and keep a copy there indefinitely? Why does it need to stay in the remarkable app locally indefinitely?
Have you actually tried to do that with Notebooks? That's the central point of the problem, it is not possible to copy a Notebook file anywhere outside of the Remarkable app or device. You can only export it as a PDF, which isn't a Notebook file anymore, you will lose everything, layers, tags, ability to edit it, as it will be simply baked down into a PDF.
@@MyDeepGuide Ahh there's the difference - I always export as PDF and just keep them to refer back if I need access to the data, I don't ever look for the ability to edit etc. So I'm not the target audience for that kind of storage solution!
This is the reason why is went for Supernote because Remarkable only care if it hurts their pocket, Ratta are community focused and seem to really want to provide a great customer experience
It is over for Remarkable 2 I think. I own one, and I'm sick of it. It's a great device, but that company is crazy. Not only that, but I hate that the thing doesn't have a back-light. Yes I knew that when I bought it, but it gives me a bad experience. I always have to go looking for light. The reason I say it's over for them is because Amazon just put on their website a new Kindle Scribe with a 10" screen, back-light, ability to read your Kindle ebooks which is something I've always wished Remarkable 2 could do, and now you can write notes. I'm ordering one, and as soon as I handwrite all of my notes to it that I have on Remarkable 2, I'm going to give my Remarkable 2 to one of my brothers and let them deal with the hassle that thing comes with.
Thanks for the update and analysis. Time will tell whether they stay back on track. Keep up your good work. Greed may not be good, but it sure is real.
They have unfortunately irreparably harmed themselves in a lot of peoples' eyes. When they announced the subscription I was waffling between a remarkable and a supernote. Remarkable can't be trusted, so they are out. The features I am waiting for on supernote keep getting kicked down the list of priorities. I understand why, but it means whenever I have had the money to pull the trigger, I haven't. My mobiscribe is adequate until the features I've been waiting years for finally see a release. The biggest one for me is the brushes. They showed off a functioning prototype of a pencil brush _years_ ago. My mobiscribe can do OCR and it does it with very few errors, even if I put numbered or bulleted lists, write in cursive, add special characters...
Too little too late. Their communication in general even outside of the connect subscription has been awful over the years. Sold mine several months ago and moved on.
For technical explorers/tinkerers, I would be wary of new features regarding how pages in notebooks are rendered. 3rd party open source software (free V paid) might stop working if the underlying way of displaying pages changes. Think of RCU becoming useless. reMarkable markets what we gain, but not so much what we might lose. It could be a strategic step to datalock your work and prevent out-of-ecosystem control. Smells like Apple. On top of that, how will it affect even the official pdf + png export and preview?
If the device had not been so great, I would certainly have bought an alternative product. Subscription sucks. Thanks for the detailed analysis. However, in my opinion, you are exaggerating by accusing Remarkable of unethical behaviour.
How exactly am I exaggerating? Do you think that artificially locking existing features under 8 USD per month, increasing the price of accessories by 30%, and doing all of that as silently as legally possible, and behind users backs is an example of ethical behavior?
Remarkable is the only company charging for such features. They are charging for features that historically have been free and are still free for non-RM devices. The way they proceeded with these changes was by being as quiet as possible about it. This is also the first time RM have ever given us a roadmap regarding where they are going - which appears to be in a direction that specifically goes against their distraction-free philosophy. If they are not unethical then they certainly aren’t customer-focused.
@@MyDeepGuide I do understand your critique. But they didn't lock anything for the owners of their device. You know that. Only for new customers. This was much too expensive, for sure. But in no way did they take advantage of an existing emergency or deceive the clients. That's what I would call an unethical behaviour.
This is a great change. Good to see them walk this awful decision back. If they hadn't made this change in the first place, I probably would have bought a remarkable 2 but after they announced the changes, I went with a Supernote instead and love it.
ReMarkable user here and completely agree with your analysis - glad to see them backpedal on what was pretty shameless behaviour but also really want to see an option for local backup and sync - can't see any good reason why the ReMarkable couldn't automatically sync directly to my desktop app on the same network, and update a local copy of all the files there so I could manage this myself. One of the important considerations for any device is how much would remain usable if the company stopped supporting it. A premium piece of hardware should be profitable to sell - if a company wants to offer services for it that should be an optional extra, not an integral feature
4 year user here. Finally they are stopping their commercial suicide. Depending on what they do next step, I may recommend it again to friends on day. I have been telling colleague this whole year don't buy, when they see me use the screen sharing feature in meetings. I have done a lot of good product feature PR and negative company business PR for them.
Mr. Dimitrijevic,
Once again, an excellent video, thank you.
I pre-ordered a reMarkable 2, and paid for it in full. When the company failed to meet its originally-touted shipping date, I let them keep my money.
Entirely on account of my following your channel (which I recommend everyone to do) around that time your videos about reMarkable the company, and the reMarkable 2 in particular, persuaded me to seek a refund.
With the refunded money I bought an Onyx Boox Nova 2 (which arrived the next day, and with which, from day one, I have been very pleased). Even better, it was £60 (GBP) cheaper than the reMarkable 2.
All this, and more, I owe to your excellent work.
Thank you very much for your support and for sharing your experiences. That kind of thing really helps potential buyers to make an informed decision, and it helps me gain a wider perspective of what the user experience is with these companies and products :)
I agree with your comments. The subscription as designed was terrible and damaging. My biggest beef is no user templates allowed without hacking. I would do it except it gets destroyed on an update.
We have to be vigilant. All companies in all industries are moving to a subscription model. An auto company will offer seat warmers as a subscription. Pretty soon many automobiles features will need to be unlocked with a subscription. Many other consumer products now come with a subscription. We have to refuse to purchase to end this madness.
This is a great update! Thanks! I really hope you keep posting these. When I bought this device, I think my main interest has been in the fact that they are using a (mostly) open software base for the device, even though everything around it has been anything but that. It's really good to see that the company, slowly but surely, is coming back around to realizing why people bought this device in the first place. For a while I really felt like they were trying their best to force a closed ecosystem around an open base os. Of course, being aware of the openness, I immediately abandoned their ecosystem, to get and make unofficial improvements. But that has been so time consuming to research and compile.
Voja, please keep making your thorough videos. I love your unique style. They are long but contain great observations and value.
I bought a remarkable this week and this is after having had my eye on this device since version one.
First the £500 device price, then the connect subscription at £7.99 GBP/month helped me to resist my curiosity and impulse last year. Continued software development needs to be funded but your observation that value to cost ratio needs to be reasonable hits the nail on the head.
Coming from iPad Pro using the Notes App, I am still in two minds of whether to keep the reMarkable or send it back. I have such a strong urge to reduce my screen time but I need the reMarkable to be a serious work device. My requirements are in priority:
1) I can not loose any notes. Doesn't matter if they are 50 days or several years old. (A moleskine could last me 2 months - shocking to diminish your own value proposition like that)
2) I need to easily find my notes - When did they introduce the tag feature? Tags are the bare minimum. For me giving up the iPads written text search feature, I only consider to support David vs. Goliath but heck you should have something on the road map to fill the void.
3) Easily sharing your content with others must surely be hugely important in most professional settings - the marketing doesn't suggest this is a toy gadget
4) Templates - that this has not been addressed in years actually rings all alarm bells with me - This is actually an area of huge differentiation opportunity to other forms of digital note taking. Imagine they would strike a strategic partnership with e.g. canva.com or a similar vendor
5) eBook reader - not supporting amazon, I won't argue about but could someone enlighten me of where I would buy ePubs without DRM? Is reMarkable hoping to be slaughtered by amazon? If eInk is not for reading, then I don't know. Reflective LCD is coming.
6) Security - this should actually top the list - any European business should have heard of GDPR by now - I thought this device is aimed at professionals. What professions can afford not to think about data security? A 4 digit pin, that's it?- really?
If they won't make a serious investment in software development now to differentiate or get bought by someone else big, they will be dead within the next two years.
You are just great. Balanced, honest and wise. Thank you so much for all your videos and your My Daily Organiser. I have 2022 and was so very happy with it that I snapped up the 2023. Keep up the good work x
Thank you very much for the support and kindness :)
My favorite thing about UA-cam: Voja having positive news of reMarkable! Having lived through the recent passing of Vin Scully - the best sportscaster ever (for my local Los Angeles Dodgers), his buttery voice and delivery pace were amazing. You are the closest orator I have heard that comes close to Vin.
Thanks for continuing to keep us informed of the reMarkable changes.
It's such scummy behaviour, I like the Remarkable, I got it early on. But I can't recommend it to anyone.
Good summary of the change. One thing that was not covered in their roadmap was the whole area of collaboration. Teams working on the same document or even an executive sharing files with his/her admin.
I must have missed that one? Is that listed in the blog article?
@@MyDeepGuide You didn't miss it, they just did not mention this on the roadmap
Good news, but as you say, incomplete. I bought my Remarkable 2 late last year when my Remarkable 1 died - just after Connectgate. I was disappointed to discover the limitations, but I refuse to submit to Connect blackmail. I agree with you that it's absurd that I can't store my work in its native form given the tablet's miniscule memory.
All of this makes me nervous though - what if they backtrack again?
When all of this was first announced I was seriously very close to buying a RM2.
Now, for me, it's going to take them 3 to 5 years of "doing the right thing" for them to even have a shot of having me as a customer again.
I work in private equity and watching Remarkable make these bad decisions is a classic sign of equity influence.
It would fit perfectly, as these changes come only after massive investment rounds from investors come into play.
I bought a Supernote A5X and it was delivered literally 1 day after remarkable 2 backtracked on their connect stuff. I was highly considering remarkable 2, so they lost at least one sale.
Supernote is better anyway.
i decided on supernote because of this, remarkable seem to be profit focused not customer focused
They lost my custom too. I bought a Boox device instead.
Decisions made by reMarkable on pricing may have something to do with how they got a lot of their money to mass produce the RMII. Ot seems that they procured a decent among of investment capital. Investment firms want to see a lot of effort put into to capital procurement. This does not take the ownership of the bad plan away from reMarkable, but I believe it provides a more complete understanding.
@@Dr_Cole remarkables sole purpose is to be profitable and once they go public they will keep having their interest in increasing share holder value so they will continue making profit related decisions, as a customer you don't want to be caught up in the middle of that because they will keep releasing new devices regularly making yours obsolete to get you to spend more
Such a confusing model (the connect - non connect). As you said, improvement from last madness. Though, not a surprise when you hit so low. However, somehow still not clear to me what you should expect in the free Vs non-free version in the future. Also, that "limited-unlimited" storage is absolutely a disaster. I am a legacy user so no direct consequences for me but I still find difficult to reccomend it to friends given their choices in the last year. It takes a while to regain trust...
Thanks Voja for this video. If I try to summerize :
1. how can a company imagine and design a computing system with no way for the user to backup its datas locally ?!!
2. A roadmap ?? Whow ! Is Remarkable finally getting out of its garage to become a serious company (but... still the 1st point) ? 🤔
Thank you for explaining and summarizing the news. This is good to see, but yeah I agree, we really should have a way to backup locally... I think you can still just copy the files and then put them back. But my question is, us early buyers aren't gonna get this new Connect are we?
13:50 Yes!
Original users still have the Connect subscription.
And yeah, finally, handwriting conversion improvements! :)
@@MyDeepGuide Oh snap. That means we have the protection plan too, but... I see that it doesn't cover accidental damage.
A few colleagues of mine asked me about my reMarkable and if i like it and if i would recommend it - and my answer was always yes i like it but i would not recommend it for new users because of thier shitty subscription and that normal features are hidden behind that subscription. if they stay on track i may can recommend the reMarkable again
I was a pre-order owner but my IT dept wouldn't allow its use so my granddaughter is now the proud owner and loves it. It would be good if you could get an Amazon Scribe and do a review comparing with the rM2.
I wonder if the lack of ability to export documents in their native format is because it would allow users to bypass the 50 day requirement on file storage. Presumably, users could back up periodically to an external source and then reupload without exporting or changing format. Those documents would then be "new" and stored in the Remarkable cloud. I suppose I'm just suggesting that this could be a "feature" (from their perspective) rather than a bug...
I have to wonder if some of these changes might also have something to do with the rumoured Amazon e-ink note taking tablet; the rumours are that this tablet could be announced any time. If a big company like Amazon releases a comparable tablet with similar features outside of a subscription model, it could pose problems for Remarkable as a company. The movement towards Supernote demonstrates how this could happen. I’d be interested in trying a Remarkable, but the subscription model and the high price of the compatible pen and folios have prevented me from doing so.
If Amazon ever does release an eNote device, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will be good. Look at Kobo Elipsa as an example. These companies are stuck in eReader mentality which doesn't translate well for note taking needs, so it remains to be seen what Amazon's approach will be, in this case.
I think Amazon is more likely to buy out Remarkable and release it under amazon brand. Or leave Remarkable alone and say they will like to release it with amazon brand at a discount (similar to how their basic Amazon monitor mounts are actually Ergotron in disguise, a much more expensive mount, and the manual that comes with the Amazon mount says Ergotron on it - utmost in laziness).
Amazon has kindle, they would probably want to make remarkindle.
Don't forget that in this hypothetical scenario Amazon's Rekindle would have ads if you don't have the Connect subscription :D Ye godz. I think we've all took a wrong turn on October 23rd, 2000...
Amazon have announced the pre-order of the Scribe for delivery on 30 November and the cost of the top of the range model is £409 so a real competition for the rM2 now. The pen is included in the cost and isn't a separate charge.
I agree that local backup is crucial!!!!
So interesting... They are flipping their behavior to finally go back to where they should have been to start with. Also interesting that I got two sets of Remarkable ads during this u tube session...
Well, it's the end of the year and Remarkable's ad machine has been fed a lot of money and Remarkable ads can now be seen everywhere you look. They do it every November and December, and they especially will need to rely on that this year, because Amazon Scribe is coming in a few weeks, and that has a strong potential to disrupt Remarkable's sales.
@@MyDeepGuide To true - trying to get the most they can before Scribe is released. I own the Remarkable 2, but have favored the Boox Max Lumi 2 now for the last year - I like the larger size (both my old eyes and my size of writing) and full android OS. What I would love to see is a proper hand writing to do list app - one where completed items are archived with the date/time completed, the addition of sub tasks, and the ability to constantly re prioritize the remaining items. Can't find one that isn't a type in vs hand writing. I would use that app all day every day!
Thank you, as always, for your insights and advice! Keep making great MDG reviews!😀
Kindle Scribe rumor was out 4 months ago… and that seemed to made the rM marketing wizards to replay the old tape before completely sinking. Am I wrong or not that much?
I don't think that you are wrong at all, especially with the timing of it all :) But I don't know how much it will help anyone this season, when a giant like Kindle wakes up and decides to take a piece of the pie. If Amazon didn't mess up (and so far it doesn't look like they did) then the existing players in the eNote world should observe carefully and readjust their projections and plans accordingly.
Too late for me, just returned my remarkable, and no plans to try again. But positive moves from them at least.
Same here. Returned it the day before this press release. They could have sent us returners a quick note of their road map and I could have waited. One good thing though, two days after mailing it to HKG, it was already received. The refund took another two days. This is indeed brilliant service.
Thank you for all the content you do on the Remarkable 2. So useful. Is there a way to delete document on the Tablet but still have it on the Desktop App?
Thank you for watching! Unfortunately no, it's not possible to selectively synchronize files between the tablet and the app.
With every announcement my decision to get the supernote is reinforced. You can't back up you own data? wtf?
I ended up getting the Supernote 5x a few months back thanks too vids here and gorilla physics channel, originally wanted the remarkable and probably would of gotten that if they did this change back then.
Still glad I didn’t go with the remarkable
Not related to this video, but I am super interested in your thoughts on the newly announced Scribe, Voja!
So am I, but as it stands now, I can't even pre order it from Norway :(
@@MyDeepGuide There has to be some price to living in Norway 🤓. I am certainly interested in it!
Please make an updated review of the Remarkable Connect as they just recently,y launched a new unit. Thanks.
I wish ReMarkable would give us custom templates from PDF feature.
There seems to have been a little storm that swept through the office of the CEO and head of marketing. Some woke up. Hope they stay awake! Thanks Voja.
We'll see. Considering that the press kit that they issued to the media is a link to a cloud repository that contains all of the standard stuff that you'd normally get, but also a dedicated folder called "Images of CEO" where you can find images of the Remarkable's CEO there, I'm not sure common sense rules apply. I've literally never seen that from any other company or press kit before. Kinda says a lot.
Great video as always, Voja! Thanks for the summary. I agree that the high subscription cost was not a good business move but I'm not sure if I agree when you mention around 17:56 that the $7.99 "pure greed." Businesses need continuous profits to pay their employees, fund R&D, expand, etc and I'm not sure what the margins are on the hardware. We also don't know that the new cost makes the cloud service still profitable per se, but I imagine it was a necessary move because of weaker-than-expected sales on their hardware over the past several months. Thanks for your detailed videos!
Thank you for watching :) I would agree, but the reasoning you offered doesn't fit the fact that now they are able to offer more for free and for a 60% lower subscription fee. Even by making all of the features free again, and lowering the subscription fee to 2.99 USD, they are able to afford it. So think about it logically, what that means about their previous move and pricing scheme.
Even so, I don't want to pay any subscription. ANY.
Now, I need something to read my pdfs( many) and scribbles while I learn
Hi Voja @My Deep Guide , just seen Amazon is presenting Kindle Scribe. Will be able to outperform RM2 ? And maybe could the Scribe news the reason why the RM guys changed subscriptions conditions ?!
Call me a cynic but I suspect Scribe is a bit factor
I own a Remarkable2. I got in early, so my Connect subscription was included and it didn't effect me when they rolled it out. I don't have much to complain about, other than Remarkable being a slightly sh*tty company. That said, they act a lot like a company that wont be around for a long time. I hope I'm wrong, but it feels like a house with a _lot_ of bad ideas.
I am so glad I never bought a Remarkable…. But only because of the company. Not the device. I wish the device and customer were treated better. I would buy it if… but I have become jaded.
I’m really torn between the RM2 & the Supernote A5X. I just started paying attention and building interest in these notepad replacement tablets in the past week, and after watching over a dozen YT vids, I’m still going back and forth on which one of these two I want to get. Can someone with working knowledge help lean me in an even more informed direction?
Aesthetically, I really like the look of RM2 over the SN. I’m not a sketch artist but occasionally I need some room for doodling with my IT job. I’m very big on planners and lists and random thoughts I want to jot down. The other two things that are important to me as are the ease of creating tags&favorites to quickly recall notes via searching key words; I feel like the SN leans better that way? Also, not a deal breaker, but an advantage, is being able to sync my google calendar with my notepad tablet; again, I believe the SN has the functionality over RM2? What also is important to me will be annotating and transferring PDF files for work between tablet laptop; I believe both RM2 & SN get this job done? I’m not too concerned with the price of each, and not overly concerned with the (new) $2.99 Connect subscription fee after a year. Can someone with working knowledge or either or both help point me in either direction?
I have both RM2, A5X and Boox Lumi 1, and I write alot, using E-ink as my notebook and sketchpad and write a lot of mathematical things. To be honest, writing on A5X feels much better than on RM2. Because A5X has a layer of soft membrane on the surface, making it's writing experience the one and only level comfortable while other hard surface E-ink tablets make your wrist and palm sore after going through a chapter of math problems. But now RM2 can insert blank note pages into PDF documents, like on iPad with Notability and this seems to be only viable on RM2 if you compare between most E-ink devices. So all in all, if editing pdf files is your top prioriety, and you mostly just annotate pdf files, not creating them, then go RM2. But if you write a lot, like a STEM student writing on paper that a lot, then go A5X and save yourself from carpal tunnel(lol).
Great analysis. Missing local or third parties cloud backup is a deal breaker for me.
What about saving to Google Drive? Will it be free? Is the paid cloud storage for their own cloud storage?
If I purchased the rm2 before the whole "connect" disaster and didn't update until now, would I have access to "connect" for free or just the 'free' plan?
Anyway, thank you so much for your content!
Greetings from Germany :)
All users who registered their account before the introduction of Connect subscription plans were automatically upgraded to the Connect plan. That is bound to your account, not to your device :)
Amazon Kindle scribe is out for pre order.
Will be interesting to watch first reviews.
Yupps :)
@@MyDeepGuide As an A5X and RM2 owner... I just pre-ordered the scribe. Hard to beat free delivery and return as an Amazon Prime member, with 30 day return window.
I wasn't able to preorder. I think it ships only to the US for now, but they don't clarify... :/
I really liked Remarkable and was sad to have to look elsewhere - however, I have learned to appreciate my Boox device - so I have no reason to move back to Remarkable - though I am happy for all the Remarkable users who stuck it out - I wish you all well!
I don’t understand this at all. The whole point of a distraction-free environment is to be able to use the device without distraction, not integrate it into being able to use it with devices full of distraction. Glad they caved with some of the pricing but the software direction they’re going in baffles me as is seems to go against a lot of their initial philosophy of creating a distraction free environment.
Baffling, isn't it?
It's almost like the distraction-free talking point was just an excuse for a sparsity of integration features.
what is, in your opinion, the best writing and reading tablet. I have remarkable 2 and use it for architecture with field notes, quick sketches, etc. but am a bit disappointing that remarkable 2, for the price, is limited and the subscription fee was another turnoff especially when I already have cloud backup with google and drop box
In terms of writing, Supernote A5X and A6X, far better writing experience than all the others. In terms of reading, Boox 7.8 inch devices.
The lack of an SD card and 8 gb of storage just show they made an entry point to sell a subscription, not a product. I was interested in a large form ereader, and I've come to the conclusion the only one I'll be ok with is one that is just running android.
Hello there! I’m asking the community because I have an issue with my RM2: it fell on the ground and the power button got stuck on off! It is now unusable! Do you have any advice on how to fix it? Thanks in advance!
The way they've done it...forcing their customers to pay for third-party cloud services...this brand is dead to me.
Remarkable's subscription model was very ill-considered, but I wouldn't call it a "money grab." All companies (and all employees who accept salaries) are trying to earn money. That a company makes a bad business decision does not somehow taint its pursuit of profit per se. If the company tries to defraud its users or rob a bank, yes, I'd call that a money grab. Providing a value in exchange for payment is not a money grab.
And what value was provided in pay walling the existing features and price hiking the accessories by 30%?
That really is the rub, isn't it? The subscription didn't really offer anything new. It promised new features later. It took things away from future users that existing users already had access to.
Call it extortion, then.
With their 100 days free return policy I wonder how many used devices they have on stock and what they do with them… I would have kept mine but returned - I was just afraid the company may bankrupt (with that lack of brain in the management) and I won’t be able to use the services at all anymore.
They sell a refurbished version for 20 bucks less, mine has shipped, really hope this will fill the void my larger tablet just can't get right,
Hi, I'm basically looking for an e-reader to read and take notes on my book with the stylus. That's it!
I already have the onyx note air and the notes overlap on the text, get lost and sometimes are represented by a pictogram (I read several books at the same time, so the display size between the books changes...)
Do you know if on the remarkable 2, there is the same problem?
Thannnnnnks a lot
This is all an reaction to the upcoming kindle scribe... I love the remarkable 2, but if the kindle scribe follows in the legacy of the kindle ereaders, but adds writing and document syncing... then remarkable is dead in the water. EDIT: 64GB and amazon customer service... oh boy, oh boy.
I for one am relieved that Remarkable has come around and fixed this snafu. Re: local backup - Can't you just copy the file to your computer from the remarkable app, at whatever point you want, and keep a copy there indefinitely? Why does it need to stay in the remarkable app locally indefinitely?
Have you actually tried to do that with Notebooks? That's the central point of the problem, it is not possible to copy a Notebook file anywhere outside of the Remarkable app or device. You can only export it as a PDF, which isn't a Notebook file anymore, you will lose everything, layers, tags, ability to edit it, as it will be simply baked down into a PDF.
@@MyDeepGuide Ahh there's the difference - I always export as PDF and just keep them to refer back if I need access to the data, I don't ever look for the ability to edit etc. So I'm not the target audience for that kind of storage solution!
This is the reason why is went for Supernote because Remarkable only care if it hurts their pocket, Ratta are community focused and seem to really want to provide a great customer experience
It is over for Remarkable 2 I think. I own one, and I'm sick of it. It's a great device, but that company is crazy. Not only that, but I hate that the thing doesn't have a back-light. Yes I knew that when I bought it, but it gives me a bad experience. I always have to go looking for light. The reason I say it's over for them is because Amazon just put on their website a new Kindle Scribe with a 10" screen, back-light, ability to read your Kindle ebooks which is something I've always wished Remarkable 2 could do, and now you can write notes. I'm ordering one, and as soon as I handwrite all of my notes to it that I have on Remarkable 2, I'm going to give my Remarkable 2 to one of my brothers and let them deal with the hassle that thing comes with.
is there a way to use a keyboard without Hack?
Thanks for the update and analysis. Time will tell whether they stay back on track. Keep up your good work. Greed may not be good, but it sure is real.
There is no way I trust them to keep to this change. They'll change back as soon as they deem it viable. I don't trust them at all.
They have unfortunately irreparably harmed themselves in a lot of peoples' eyes. When they announced the subscription I was waffling between a remarkable and a supernote. Remarkable can't be trusted, so they are out. The features I am waiting for on supernote keep getting kicked down the list of priorities. I understand why, but it means whenever I have had the money to pull the trigger, I haven't. My mobiscribe is adequate until the features I've been waiting years for finally see a release. The biggest one for me is the brushes. They showed off a functioning prototype of a pencil brush _years_ ago. My mobiscribe can do OCR and it does it with very few errors, even if I put numbered or bulleted lists, write in cursive, add special characters...
❤
Too little too late. Their communication in general even outside of the connect subscription has been awful over the years. Sold mine several months ago and moved on.
Grab market share and THEN charge people a bunch of money. First you have to make it too painful to leave the platform.
"shameless money crap" 👍 😂
Could Remarkable make this any more confusing? Jesus.
For technical explorers/tinkerers, I would be wary of new features regarding how pages in notebooks are rendered.
3rd party open source software (free V paid) might stop working if the underlying way of displaying pages changes. Think of RCU becoming useless. reMarkable markets what we gain, but not so much what we might lose. It could be a strategic step to datalock your work and prevent out-of-ecosystem control. Smells like Apple.
On top of that, how will it affect even the official pdf + png export and preview?
These guys are shifty as all hell.
Remarkable 2... more like Petty 2
If the device had not been so great, I would certainly have bought an alternative product. Subscription sucks.
Thanks for the detailed analysis. However, in my opinion, you are exaggerating by accusing Remarkable of unethical behaviour.
How exactly am I exaggerating? Do you think that artificially locking existing features under 8 USD per month, increasing the price of accessories by 30%, and doing all of that as silently as legally possible, and behind users backs is an example of ethical behavior?
Remarkable is the only company charging for such features. They are charging for features that historically have been free and are still free for non-RM devices. The way they proceeded with these changes was by being as quiet as possible about it.
This is also the first time RM have ever given us a roadmap regarding where they are going - which appears to be in a direction that specifically goes against their distraction-free philosophy.
If they are not unethical then they certainly aren’t customer-focused.
@@MyDeepGuide I Think you were talking about "shameless money grab", didn't you? That's what I meant with "exaggerating".
@@dancewithoutme "If they are not unethical then they certainly aren’t customer-focused." I agree.
@@MyDeepGuide I do understand your critique. But they didn't lock anything for the owners of their device. You know that. Only for new customers. This was much too expensive, for sure. But in no way did they take advantage of an existing emergency or deceive the clients. That's what I would call an unethical behaviour.