reMarkable: The E-Ink Tablet That Traces Back to a 1970s Xerox Dream
A tablet that does less — on purpose. No apps, no notifications, no color. Just thinking. Its root is a 53-year-old Xerox vision.
Gadget Specs
reMarkable 2
reMarkable AS • $449
Origin Technology (1972)
Alan Kay's Dynabook concept at Xerox PARC
Future Angle
As screen fatigue grows, 'less-tech' devices focused on single purposes will become a major product category.
Key Takeaways
- •No apps, no notifications, no browser — by design
- •E-ink displays use zero power when static, lasting weeks on a charge
- •Alan Kay's Dynabook was about augmenting thought, not entertainment
Root Connection
reMarkable's 'paper-first' philosophy traces to Alan Kay's 1972 Dynabook concept at Xerox PARC — a portable device for thinking, not consuming.
Timeline
Alan Kay proposes the Dynabook at Xerox PARC — a personal, portable thinking device
E Ink Corporation founded at MIT Media Lab
Sony Librie — first e-ink e-reader — launches in Japan
Amazon Kindle popularizes e-ink for reading
reMarkable launches — e-ink for writing and thinking, not just reading
reMarkable 2: thinner than a pencil, with paper-like writing feel
The reMarkable 2 is the anti-iPad. It has no apps. No notifications. No color. No browser. It does exactly two things: let you read documents and write with a stylus that feels like pen on paper.
In an attention economy where every device screams for your eyeballs, reMarkable whispers. Its e-ink screen uses no power when static. There's nothing to scroll. Nothing to tap. Just a surface for thought.
This sounds like anti-technology. But it's actually the fulfillment of one of computing's oldest dreams.
In 1972, Alan Kay — working at Xerox PARC, the legendary lab that invented the graphical user interface, Ethernet, and laser printing — sketched a concept called the Dynabook. It was a portable, personal computing device designed for one purpose: augmenting human thought.
Kay's Dynabook wasn't meant for entertainment or communication. It was meant to be a thinking tool — something that extended your brain the way a bicycle extends your legs. It would be lightweight, personal, and devoted entirely to helping you learn and create.
Every tablet since — the iPad, the Surface, the Galaxy Tab — has drifted away from this vision. They became consumption devices. Entertainment portals. Notification delivery systems.
The reMarkable drifted back. CEO Magnus Wanberg has explicitly cited the Dynabook as inspiration. The device's entire design philosophy is: remove everything that isn't thinking.
The e-ink technology itself traces to MIT's Media Lab in 1997, where researchers figured out how to suspend charged particles in microcapsules to create paper-like displays. But the philosophy — the idea that a computer should amplify thought, not hijack attention — goes back to a Xerox researcher's sketch in 1972.
Sometimes the most futuristic thing you can do is go back to the root.
How did this make you feel?
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