Sony's new 13.3" digital paper DPTRP1 released

[digiflash]

Originally Posted by LarryNYC

I paired with the Digital Paper App, that was a pretty easy procedure. I'll start moving my Box.com documents over to it.

How does the connection work? Do you have to select connect and then the sync starts or is it enough to connect the device with WIFI and the App searches automatically for it?

[LarryNYC]

Originally Posted by digiflash

How does the connection work? Do you have to select connect and then the sync starts or is it enough to connect the device with WIFI and the App searches automatically for it?

Well, I'm still trying to figure it all out, LOL. You can set the device to synch every so many minutes over a Wifi network. Otherwise, i think you need to manually synch.

More information here: http://helpguide.sony.net/dpt/rp1/v1...001273119.html

[Avenger]

Originally Posted by LarryNYC

Yes, the top of the stylus has the same micro-USB connection as the device. It took about an hour or so to charge the stylus.

Right away, I noticed that the paging is much faster than on the old one and the writing is much faster too. Erasing is a joy, it is lightning fast. When you erase, I see PDF text look like it gets erased some and then it gets redrawn, not a big deal.

Is there any noticeable lag while writing? Or is it so little that the writing seems natural?

[LarryNYC]

Originally Posted by NNN

"We all learned how to write and sketch by hand, it's far more efficient than with a keyboard. . . . To me, the S1 and RP1 are idea generators. Engage your brain and your hand and take a break from the keyboard. Have you ever seen pages from an inventor's notebook? That's what this is, a modern inventor's notebook."

Having used such devices for twenty years as idea generators, beginning with the Newton, it is very useful to occasionally attach a keyboard. As you point out, one writes and works differently with a keyboard; most people type much faster than they handwrite. Keyboard support, therefore, would be useful. (And juggling devices is not.)

I'm sorry to see musicians, for whom hands-free page turning is critical, also overlooked by Sony's failure to support mirroring or any Bluetooth device.[/QUOTE]

I'm happy that I own one device that does not impose the tyranny of a keyboard on its users. I would rather Sony devote their time to improving the handwriting experience than supporting a keyboard.

It's not about how fast a person types, it's about how well they think. ;-) I'm a programmer. I solve far more problems with a few sketches and handwritten notes than I ever do by typing up paragraphs of text. I own plenty of keyboards, I type on them all day. I just want something that lets me sketch, annotate, and make quick notes. This device is just the ticket!

As for page turning, don't give up hope. I think Sony will come around and provide support for Bluetooth page turning pedals. I study the classical guitar and would welcome having that support.

I took the S1 to one of my lessons and my teacher said that it was the first tablet that was fast enough at marking up music to be useful. Students bring in tablets to him all the time but they're so slow and clumsy that it interrupts the flow of the lesson.

[fgdas]

Originally Posted by LarryNYC

No Bluetooth keyboard support, yeah! It's a device that is meant to be used with a stylus, not with a keyboard.

Not to support Bluetooth hands free page turning is a fail. The device is a PDF only.
What do you do with documents? You turn pages.
This silly decision is similar when Sony was fighting VHS or MP3.

[LarryNYC]

Originally Posted by fgdas

Not to support Bluetooth hands free page turning is a fail. The device is a PDF only.
What do you do with documents? You turn pages.
This silly decision is similar when Sony was fighting VHS or MP3.

Well, you use your finger to turn pages until they do or do not support pedals. I just don't think there are enough musicians with the cash to buy this device to make them the dominant user population. The majority of users will be from legal, medical, and other scientific and technical fields, and they don't need hands free page turning.

PDF is not dead. PDF is awesome.

[LarryNYC]

Originally Posted by Avenger

Is there any noticeable lag while writing? Or is it so little that the writing seems natural?

Well, I've only been writing on it for a minutes but it is faster than the S1 and feels like much more of a natural writing experience. I don't notice any lag or refresh. Sony obviously worked hard to make improvements in that area.

I suppose it depends on how fast you write, but I have tried to write fast and I don't get a sense of the device lagging behind my writing.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by fgdas

Not to support Bluetooth hands free page turning is a fail. The device is a PDF only.
What do you do with documents? You turn pages.
This silly decision is similar when Sony was fighting VHS or MP3.

What proportion of people who turn pages on a reading device do so with a Bluetooth page turner, do you suppose? Perhaps it's as many as 0.1%, but I doubt it's that high. To criticise Sony for not supporting such a specialist requirement is a little unreasonable, I think.

[LarryNYC]

Originally Posted by LarryNYC

Well, I'm still trying to figure it all out, LOL. You can set the device to synch every so many minutes over a Wifi network. Otherwise, i think you need to manually synch.

More information here: http://helpguide.sony.net/dpt/rp1/v1...001273119.html

Ok, here is where I'm at with the synching process.

I downloaded the Box Sync program for my Mac and synched all of my Box folders to my computer. I then went into the Digital Paper App and selected one of the Box folders as the Synch Folder.

After that, I selected Sync, and all of my documents were transferred to the RP1.

I then opened up the forty eight page PDF document that represents all of the notes that I've taken for my current project. The text definitely looks much blacker, and paging is fast. It's wonderful to be able to look at sixteen pages at a time and quickly page through the document.

I also configured a Wifi network and will try synching through that without connecting with the USB cable.

[juegos]

The worst decision of Sony is no direct download option from cloud services such as Dropbox. This will make the device unattractive to many academics - it scared most of my colleagues away that knew about the device.

I sometimes get more than 50 papers in PDF during the day from students, people in my team are uploading new documents to our common Dropbox folder all the time, and the only way to get these on the DPT RP1 is:

(1) starting your PC,
(2) starting the Digital Paper app on your PC and connect PC to DPT RP1 over wifi (local LAN)/bluetooth/USB
(3) drag and drop files within the app from the PC to the DPT-RP1.

Terrible for productivity and it means you have to carry your PC with you all the time if you want new documents on your DPT RP1.

What you want is the device - using WiFi or whatever - automatically download new documents when they are uploaded to certain folders in the cloud. The worst thing is that the predecessor to the DPT-RP1 (the S1) actually had this option, but Sony removed it.

The reMarkable tablet (10.3 in size) that's coming out in August at least does seem to have that cloud integration - much better for academics and people what work in teams generally.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by juegos

The worst decision of Sony is no direct download option from cloud services such as Dropbox. This will make the device unattractive to many academics (excluding perhaps grad students) - it scared some of my colleagues away.

I sometimes get 50+ papers in PDF during the day from students, people in my team are uploading new documents to our common Dropbox folder all the time, and the only way to get these on the DPT RP1 is:

(1) starting your PC,
(2) starting the Digital Paper app on your PC
(3) drag and drop files within the app from the PC to the DPT-RP1.

Terrible for productivity. What you want is the device automatically download new documents when they are uploaded to certain folders in the cloud.

Agreed. I use the GoodReader app on my iPad to read PDFs, and it can automatically sync to a wide range of Cloud services, including Dropbox. As you say, it's a key requirement for many use cases.

[LarryNYC]

Originally Posted by juegos

The worst decision of Sony is no direct download option from cloud services such as Dropbox. This will make the device unattractive to many academics - it scared most of my colleagues away that knew about the device.

I sometimes get more than 50 papers in PDF during the day from students, people in my team are uploading new documents to our common Dropbox folder all the time, and the only way to get these on the DPT RP1 is:

(1) starting your PC,
(2) starting the Digital Paper app on your PC and connect PC to DPT RP1 over wifi (local LAN)/bluetooth/USB
(3) drag and drop files within the app from the PC to the DPT-RP1.

Terrible for productivity and it means you have to carry your PC with you all the time if you want new documents on your DPT RP1.

What you want is the device - using WiFi or whatever - automatically download new documents when they are uploaded to certain folders in the cloud. The worst thing is that the predecessor to the DPT-RP1 (the S1) actually had this option, but Sony removed it.

The reMarkable tablet (10.3 in size) that's coming out in August at least does seem to have that cloud integration - much better for academics and people what work in teams generally.

I'd be careful with reMarkable, I don't think they've ever shipped a product and I believe they were involved in previous failed campaign, if I recall correctly. Plus, the size of the thing is a non-starter for me, it's just the wrong size. I also think that the handwriting exhibits a lot of lag, from what I see with my eyes when looking at their videos.

So, are you saying that you'll never be close enough to your computer at any time during the day to get documents synched up with the RP1? Lucky you! I have a hard time getting away from my computer for an hour.

There is only one constant with regards to the creation of hardware and software products. Build it and people will complain. I knew programmers at big companies who never wrote any code and their lives were easy, nobody ever complained about their work. On the other hand, I knew programmers who had almost singlehandedly written complete products, and they were hounded to death by complaints about their code.

[juegos]

Originally Posted by juegos

The worst decision of Sony is no direct download option from cloud services such as Dropbox. This will make the device unattractive to many academics - it scared most of my colleagues away that knew about the device.

I sometimes get more than 50 papers in PDF during the day from students, people in my team are uploading new documents to our common Dropbox folder all the time, and the only way to get these on the DPT RP1 is:

(1) starting your PC,
(2) starting the Digital Paper app on your PC and connect PC to DPT RP1 over wifi (local LAN)/bluetooth/USB
(3) drag and drop files within the app from the PC to the DPT-RP1.

Terrible for productivity and it means you have to carry your PC with you all the time if you want new documents on your DPT RP1.

What you want is the device - using WiFi or whatever - automatically download new documents when they are uploaded to certain folders in the cloud. The worst thing is that the predecessor to the DPT-RP1 (the S1) actually had this option, but Sony removed it.

The reMarkable tablet (10.3 in size) that's coming out in August at least does seem to have that cloud integration - much better for academics and people what work in teams generally.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Agreed. I use the GoodReader app on my iPad to read PDFs, and it can automatically sync to a wide range of Cloud services, including Dropbox. As you say, it's a key requirement for many use cases.

Yeah it's almost unbelievable that Sony removed cloud downloads, anybody that works in teams and has to read new documents during the day on the DPT-RP1 now has to be at his pc to get the documents on the device. Just terrible as most 'PDF readers' (academics, lawyers and so on) are actually people that work in teams and these people want to have access to documents on the device on the fly.

Imagine a lawyer that wants a quick signature from his boss on a document. He can't get a document on his boss' DPT-RP1 simply by uploading it to the firm's cloud.

Instead he needs to go to his boss, take his DPT RP1, link it to a pc with the document and Digital Paper App, then transfer the file within the app by drag-drop, and then give the device back to his boss.

Just so hard to imagine that Sony targets these kind of people with the device but completely loses out by removing cloud integration. I wonder what kind of people are in their sales / product development team.

I expect a lot of returned DPT-RP1s once people figure out that there is no cloud integration and that the device thus is very limited when it comes to teamwork.

[DuckFOO]

Originally Posted by LarryNYC

Thank goodness it does not support a browser.

The lack of browser support might well be the result of Sony wanting to force all data transfers via their application.

[juegos]

Originally Posted by LarryNYC

I'd be careful with reMarkable, I don't think they've ever shipped a product and I believe they were involved in previous failed campaign, if I recall correctly. Plus, the size of the thing is a non-starter for me, it's just the wrong size. I also think that the handwriting exhibits a lot of lag, from what I see with my eyes when looking at their videos.

They are a new company and were not involved in a previously failed campaign. You can read their full history and how they got to making the device by reading the Harvard Business case study on them (the fact that Harvard actually conducted a study on them already gives them a lot of credibility I must say - they don't pick random startups) - recommended reading for everyone here. Unfortunately you have to pay for it:

http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51933

I agree with you about the size - the reMarkable's 10.3 size might be too small for (some) pdfs, unless you smartly crop the margins. That's my main concern with the device. But it may outweigh the fact that the reMarkable has cloud integration and Sony's DPT RP1 doesn't.

The reMarkable's latest prototype handwriting latency is at 60-70ms now, as fast if not faster than the DPT-RP1 (and this has been confirmed by reviewers from the BBC, The Verge and so on):