First Look at the Retro 'Freewrite' Smart Typewriter

My first experience with word processing was on a traditional, plough-the-knob typewriter in the 80s, the dawn of personal computing. By high school, it was replaced by PCs with noisy keys, which took disks that were really floppy.

For the sake of nostalgia, I've considered finding another vintage typewriter, but any writing I care about needs to find its way to a computer, so typing on something non connected to the net just doubles my work. That'due south why I jumped at the chance to play with Astrohaus' smart typewriter, the Freewrite.

Though not quite as vintage every bit my commencement typewriter, the Freewrite's mechanical keyboard feels and sounds just like the clackety keyboards of my school days. The typing experience is quite different from the low-profile chiclet keyboards y'all'll find on laptops like the MacBook.

Letters you lot type appear on a backlit e-ink display that sits higher up the keyboard. I've always plant e-ink to be easier on my eyes, so that's a selling point, but there'south besides a bit of a filibuster you lot won't experience on a regular figurer. That makes it hard to edit equally you write, but the Freewrite is made for offset drafts.

The Freewrite feels solid. Weighing in around four pounds, this thing won't exist scooting across the table anytime soon. Thankfully there'south a well-placed carrying handle, simply I did detect myself wishing information technology had a protective comprehend.

The most important feature, of grade, is cloud sync. As I type, every grapheme syncs instantly with my Dropbox via Wi-Fi; it likewise supports Google Bulldoze and Evernote. Writers can employ markdown syntax to create headings, bulleted lists, footnotes, and more. Formatting is only visible on a calculator from the synced file, though. On the Freewrite'due south e-ink screen, your header volition simply appear equally you blazon it: #Header.

The Freewrite is an first-class manner to become a first draft downward. Merely typos will likely abound. Backspace is the but style to navigate through the text, and arrow keys are intentionally omitted from the keyboard so writers can only movement forrad. Y'all'll need to thoroughly proofread your certificate from the PC later.

The Special key—which allows yous to change what'southward displayed on a narrow status screen betwixt the e-ink screen and the keyboard—is my favorite feature. It can prove information like discussion and character count, reading time, an analog clock, the date and time, a stopwatch, a blank screen, or the cloud service to which Freewrite is syncing. Whether your session goal is a sure word count, an amount of fourth dimension spent writing, or the platonic reading fourth dimension, Freewrite's Special primal has y'all covered.

This very cool connected typewriter is fabricated for the serious writer, and perhaps more specifically, the essayist or fiction writer. If you tend to write research-heavy content, you may detect yourself sitting with your laptop open up next to your Freewrite, which sort of defeats the purpose.

The Freewrite's battery lasts 3 to four weeks on a single accuse with normal usage, defined as xxx minutes of writing per day, with Wi-Fi turned off. It recharges in most three hours using a USB cablevision.

The Freewrite by Astrohaus is available on its site in both ANSI (American) and ISO (international) keyboard layouts for $499 (or monthly payments as low as $25 via Paypal Credit or FuturePay). A warranty covers manufacturer defects for 90 days.

And then, if yous take some money to burn and find yourself easily distracted on an cyberspace-enabled figurer, long for the experience of a mechanical keyboard beneath your fingers, or would benefit from the lack of glare on an e-ink screen, the Freewrite may exist for you lot. Just don't drop information technology.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/consumer-electronics-reviews-ratings-comparisons/14945/first-look-at-the-retro-freewrite-smart-typewriter

Posted by: jorgensenknort1985.blogspot.com

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