Jerry were you talking about this? Freewrite? Jill
jill stockinger
The Future of Writing Looks Like the Past
The Freewrite, a “smart typewriter,” wants to liberate writers from their computers.
These days, I write with my fingertips. We all do. And so, anything that changes that sensation stands out. Today, instead of chiclet keys on an Apple laptop, I am clacking at the white, mechanical keys of the Freewrite, a “smart typewriter” made by Astrohaus. It’s the latest and most extreme entry in the distraction-free writing wars. The idea: by stripping down a computer to its basics, writing can be simplified and improved.
Even though it looks like one, Freewrite is no hipster paean to writerly minimalism. It’s got a foot in the past and the present: the mechanical keyboard inscribes text to an e-ink screen (like the Kindle’s), and a physical Wifi lever activates networking—but only to send your documents to services like Dropbox or Google Drive. The lowly writer, plagued by the torment of Facebook, Twitter, and browser tabs, can finally get down to business and just write.