Tag: tablet

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New tablet

For an upcoming trip, I decided I needed a new tablet to replace the old Transformer Prime. After all this time, the battery doesn’t hold much of a charge anymore, and it’s become really slow and difficult to use.

This time, I wanted something that I could use for reading my growing e-book collection without all the distractions of extra apps on an Android or iOS tablet. I also wanted something that was e-paper/e-ink based. Looked at the Amazon Kindle tablets, but I felt they were too small. I finally settled on the reMarkable tablet.

I’ve been using it for about a week now, and it’s a pretty slick device. It’s a fairly open device which lends itself pretty well to hacking on and customizing. On the other hand, if you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s also not hard to brick. There’s a whole ecosystem of software, “paper” templates, and splash screens created by other reMarkable tablet users. There’s a wiki to collect a lot of those projects and information in one place.

I had a new mammography unit to acceptance test today, so naturally I took an x-ray image of the reMarkable.

X-ray image of the reMarkable 2 tablet. 1404x1872 pixel PNG suitable for using with the Remarkable 2.
X-ray image of the reMarkable 2 tablet. 1404×1872 pixel PNG suitable for using with the reMarkable 2.

Turning it into power-off and sleep splash screens for the reMarkable was pretty easy. Resize the image to 1404×1872 pixels, save it as an appropriately named PNG file, and copy it over to the Remarkable. Reboot and the new splash screens were there.

reMarkable tablet with an x-ray of the tablet as the power-off splash screen

The Remarkable also fits nicely into the leather sleeve I bought for the Transformer Prime.

I’ve loaded it up with EPUB books and I already have a few ideas for some paper templates to create. I’m going to enjoy using this tablet.

Update: Oh, I forgot the pen! The reMarkable Marker looks pretty simple inside. Tough to tell, but at the tip is a coil of wire and a few other bits that help to inform the digitizer in the Remarkable where the tip of the pen is. The other solid dense objects I think are the magnets used to clip the Marker to the side of the reMarkable.

reMarkable Marker pen x-ray. 1404x1872 pixel PNG suitable for using with the Remarkable 2.
reMarkable Marker pen x-ray. 1404×1872 pixel PNG suitable for using with the reMarkable 2.

Another update: Embiggened versions of the reMarkable and reMarkable Marker.

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Sleeve case for Transformer Prime

Rather than get one of those flip cover style cases for my Transformer Prime (it still needs a name), I opted to get a sleeve type case.

I don’t remember how I discovered Saddleback Leather Company on the internets, but they sell some really nice leather items, including a wallet I picked up from them a couple years ago. Their Classic Briefcase has been on my IWantINeed list for a while now.

When it came to sleeve cases, Saddleback Leather was the first place I went looking and was delighted to find their Gadget sleeve. I had to wait a bit for the colour I wanted to be in stock though.

Although the sleeve is sized more for an iPad sized tablet (the Prime sticks out some), the Prime still fits in there pretty nicely with some additional room to spare. A Prime with keyboard dock would probably go in there perfectly.

For now, the case holds the Prime in pretty securely so there’s not too much danger of it slipping out accidentally. Even with some light shaking the Prime stays in the sleeve. That may change as the sleeve gets broken in over the next year.

The stitching is pretty solid, and if it’s anything like their wallet, will take a lot of abuse before it starts showing any sign of wear. The leather is 2 mm thick, and the inside is lined with pigskin (I think). It should provide a good bit of protection against falls, unless it happens to fall on the open end, in which case you’d be pretty much hosed.

This sleeve case is likely to outlive every gadget I’ll ever own.