Sony's new 13.3" digital paper DPTRP1 released

[jra166]

Originally Posted by digiflash

I really hope that Sony adds the content feature. One question. Is there the multi-page view like on the S1 where you can view 2 oder 4 or more pages side-by-side.

I didn't own Sony's first model, but from what I understand, they were constantly improving the software with firmware updates. We all know the hardware is more capable so I hope some of these features being discussed will one day be implemented.

[LarryNYC]

Originally Posted by digiflash

I really hope that Sony adds the content feature. One question. Is there the multi-page view like on the S1 where you can view 2 oder 4 or more pages side-by-side.

Yes, there is a Two Page Spread mode that lets you look at two pages side by side in landscape orientation and write on both sides. There is an option to specify whether the document has a cover or not. If the document has a cover, then the first page will be displayed as a cover and everything after that will be displayed as two page spreads.

[Randy11]

Originally Posted by LarryNYC

I love mine and I won't be returning it, no way. There is no other device that comes close to its capabilities in terms of taking handwritten notes and displaying a full-sized page of text. I don't know why people keep saying it is not an eReader because I can easily convert EPUB documents to read on it. Ok, I can't buy Kindle books, I'll live, I also own a Kindle.

EPUB and HTML are important for me. For EPUB, I change sometimes the font and the font's size during the reading. For HTML is necessary for many I.T. documentations, per example, all Ruby doc is available only in HTML format.

Yes, the Sony is an 'e-reader', but for me something is missing.

[NNN]

Originally Posted by fgdas

Below pictures are from Japanese Sony website:
1: business man flying with low-cost airline
2: unemployed buddy sitting all day at the café
3: three social workers brainstorming what they could do for above buddy
4: cellist practicing for street busking
5: writer creating his sixth unpublished novel
6: county council surveyors
7: scientist trying to find cancer cure
8: optimist trying to figure out how to get out the jammed paper in his manual
9: YouTuber narrating voice over another monetised video
10: Sony representative asking customer's needs which he's going to abolish later on
11: DIYer brainstorming his next project over free books in the library
12: sexy secretary trying to make up pluses and minuses about her boyfriend
13: doodling interpreter
14: lawyer

Sony seems to have put out yet more, great, unrealized hardware. They seem to have a way to go before fulfilling the promises of their advertising. The RP1 seems useful only in proximity to a computer, for conveniently reading and marking up what would very recently have been on the computer screen. (You'd think then, since the hardware allows for it, that Sony would implement screen mirroring.) Three weeks of battery life is meaningless where one cannot work with it less than a day without a computer.

Your captions for Sony's ads are pretty funny. Sony's ads are, however, misleading. Professional musicians require handsfree page turning. (Sony could implement this via Bluetooth, but hasn't.) A writer away for a long weekend does occasionally require a keyboard. (Sony could implement keyboards via Bluetooth, but hasn't.) Surveyors and customer service representatives require PDF pop-up data boxes, which, apparently, were available in the S1. According to a recent, YouTube video review, Sony has yet to implement this in the RP1. A lawyer requires at least a barebones browser in order to access databases such as Westlaw and LexisNexis and cloud/email access to documents received while out of the office. Sony implemented this is in the S1, but not the RP1.

Someone earlier on this thread said that s/he felt that Sony had rushed to market. (They certainly didn't manufacture enough units for release.) I'm hoping that this is the case. Perhaps, under sustained, customer pressure, Sony will flesh out the software to match its hardware—actually live up to its advertising.

As it is, the RP1 is nothing more than a larger, ReMarkable tablet. And neither is available for purchase.

[Avenger]

Someone here and an Amazon reviewer said that the screen has a lot of friction in kind of a negative way. Using the standard nib, does it still feel close to writing with a pencil on paper? I'm drawn to this product due to the writing experience.

[juegos]

Originally Posted by NNN

Perhaps, if under sustained, customer pressure, Sony will flesh out the software to match its hardware—will fulfill the promise of its advertising.

I hope so but am skeptical about this unfortunately. The hardware, prototype of the DPT RP1 was already provided to the FCC in July 2016 (https://fccid.io/AK8DPTRP1). What has Sony's software team done from then onwards? Rather than developing new features, they spent a year on removing features that were in the DPT-S1 but are no longer in the DPT-RP1:

- no more browser (in fact no access to the internet at all)
- no more direct download documents from cloud services / webdav
- no more options to (auto) fill forms
- no more keyboard option

and so on. In return for all that you get a Sony Digital Paper App that requires you to be near your Windows / Mac PC to get new documents on your DPT-RP1.

So it seems unlikely to me they're going to turn the clock back a year software-wise and return all the features that made its predecessor the DPT-S1 so useful, let alone develop new features.

[Kumabjorn]

The more I read here, in the hope of some edification, the more confused I feel. I'm sure I read somewhere, here I think, that the DTP-RP1 has support for receiving and uploading documents to Box.com and I've gotten the impression that is directly from the device, not the app on the PC/Mac.
So there has to be a WiFi radio in the device, right? Is that then limited to serve only Box.com and nothing else?

[juegos]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

The more I read here, in the hope of some edification, the more confused I feel. I'm sure I read somewhere, here I think, that the DTP-RP1 has support for receiving and uploading documents to Box.com and I've gotten the impression that is directly from the device, not the app on the PC/Mac.
So there has to be a WiFi radio in the device, right? Is that then limited to serve only Box.com and nothing else?

You can select a Dropbox/Box folder in the Digital Paper App. So instead of it being like:

DPT-RP1 <-> Box.com / Dropbox.com (possible on its predecessor DPT-S1)

it is:

DPT RP1 <-> Digital Paper App on your Windows / Mac PC <-> Box.com / Dropbox.com

You can connect to the Digital Paper App on your pc only by being on the same wifi network or using bluetooth/usb, so you have to be near it (no internet support).

The confusion is, again, partly due to marketing deception by Sony (just like the battery '3 weeks without charging' statement). They prominently advertise the DPT RP1 with support for cloud services such as Dropbox but do not make it clear that this works only with the Digital Paper App on your PC as an intermediary.

So in fact there is no cloud integration at all as the only way to get documents on the DPT-RP1 is locally through the Digital Paper App on your PC.

[LarryNYC]

Originally Posted by juegos

I hope so but am skeptical about this unfortunately. The hardware, prototype of the DPT RP1 was already provided to the FCC in July 2016 (https://fccid.io/AK8DPTRP1). What has Sony's software team done from then onwards? Rather than developing new features, they spent a year on removing features that were in the DPT-S1 but are no longer in the DPT-RP1:

- no more browser (in fact no access to the internet at all)
- no more direct download from cloud services / webdav
- no more options to (auto) fill forms
- no more keyboard option

and so on. In return for all that you get a Sony Digital Paper App that requires you to be near your Windows / Mac PC to get new documents on your DPT-RP1.

So it seems unlikely to me they're going to turn the clock back a year software-wise and return all the features that made its predecessor the DPT-S1 so useful, let alone develop new features.

Seriously, do you own an DPT-S1? Have you ever used one?

Browsing the internet on an eInk device is a terrible user experience, the S1 was no exception. As a result, I never browsed the web on it. I bet Sony figured out that most people hated the web browser. The new "Print PDF to Digital Paper" option available from every browser window on a real computer is far more useful a feature than having a browser on the RP1.

I'm not willing to wait for an eInk tablet to load web pages and process HTML. Talk about wasting battery life! Sony was smart to get rid of the web browser. It takes a huge amount of programmer resources to maintain and enhance a web browser, and, at the end of the day, it just isn't worth it, in my opinion. We've all got far better web browsers on our laptops and desktops.

OK, you've told us about the lack of cloud services a number of times now and I still maintain that most people will be close to their computers a few times a day and therefore easily able to synch new documents onto their RP1s.

AutoFill PDF forms, some people might care, maybe it will come later, but I don't think that many people will be upset about losing this feature. I was working on filling out an AutoFill PDF on my desktop today and it was a clunky affair. I'm sure it was frustrating on the S1.

Keyboard, again, typing notes on the keyboard on the S1 was a tedious process, good riddance to it. I could write sticky notes with the stylus far faster than I could type them. I bet Sony figured that out too.

We've all got computers, let's use them for what they're good at, which is high speed surfing of the internet and typing up documents. Let's use the RP1 for what it's good at, which is making handwritten notes, either from scratch or on PDF documents, and reading PDF files.

[juegos]

Originally Posted by LarryNYC

Do you own an DPT-S1? Have you ever used one?

I own both a DPT S1 and a DPT RP1 and I enjoyed using the browser and keyboard every now and then - they should have just kept the features and spent their time on developing new features, instead of spending their time on removing these.

You are not forced to use the browser if it's on there.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by juegos

You can connect to the Digital Paper App on your pc only by being on the same wifi network or using bluetooth/usb, so you have to be near it (no internet support).

Thanks for the clarification.
So obviously there is a WiFi radio in it, it just cannot connect to anything but your personal LAN. Seems rather myopic to throttle it like that.

[LarryNYC]

Originally Posted by juegos

I own both a DPT S1 and a DPT RP1 and I enjoyed using the browser and keyboard every now and then - they should have just kept the features and spent their time on developing new features, instead of spending their time on removing these.

You are not forced to use the browser if it's on there.

"Every now and then" leads me to believe that you probably used the web browser and keyboard about as much as I did, which is, rarely to never, LOL. I would not have been able to post and edit a single one of these comments from the S1. I would have given up in sheer frustration.

Unmaintained code suffers from bit rot. Web standards change, your web browser breaks, and customers complain about the breakage.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by juegos

I own both a DPT S1 and a DPT RP1 and I enjoyed using the browser and keyboard every now and then - they should have just kept the features and spent their time on developing new features, instead of spending their time on removing these.

Are you sure that it is the same system under both devices? If the RP1 has a much newer version of Android running on it, then keeping functionality is probably a lot more work than than dropping it. And browsers and their plugins and CA certificates require constant updating for security and protocol upgrades. It doesn't take long before a non-updated browser becomes frustratingly useless on current websites. Some of my older ereaders have browsers, and it's not even worth trying them anymore.

[juegos]

Originally Posted by LarryNYC

"Every now and then" leads me to believe that you probably used the web browser and keyboard about as much as I did, which is, rarely to never, LOL. I would not have been able to post and edit a single one of these comments from the S1. I would have given up in sheer frustration.

Unmaintained code suffers from bit rot. Web standards change, your web browser breaks, and customers complain about the breakage.

The browser would have performed better in the DPT RP1 given the hardware upgrades so I don't see your point. But the lack of a browser doesn't bother me much - it's the lack of internet support as such that's now lacking.

The hardware improvements of the DPT-RP1 are great but all Sony's software team did for a year was removing features in return for an App that requires you to be near your PC to get new documents on your device.

[juegos]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Are you sure that it is the same system under both devices? If the RP1 has a much newer version of Android running on it, then keeping functionality is probably a lot more work than than dropping it.

Could be, but they dropped all internet functionality so I don't think an Android update was the incentive to drop it - the browser just wouldn't function anymore without internet nor would cloud services and so on.