How about getting a Psion Series 5?
Also, why are Sony Vaio P’s so rare and goddamn expensive?
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The Freewrite 2 will ship with a little voice-synthesizer chip that periodically blurts out <<this novel you are writing is really coming along>> or <<wow I really admire your dedication to your craft>>.
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I was very interested in the Freewrite, but I hate the restricted workflow and dependence on wifi. I got a Dana, and I enjoy it for “first draft” writing. The advantage over a laptop is that it’s dead simple and offers few distractions. Also, Charles Stross used one, and I’m a fan. Maybe now I can write as good as him!
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I wrote a lot on my S5 and 5MX. Still in a drawer somewhere.
I think these days if I was after a no-distraction writing machine I’d put a minimal Linux install on an old laptop.
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The actual concept of this i can understand well. It’s not something i’d use, but i can see why other people would.
It’s just the actual design implementation they went with that seems odd to me. A slapdash mix of retro styling, some low tech bits and some high tech bits melding in a bit of a cludge…
Taking the screen for example, it sounds like they’ve deliberately gone for a slow as possible eInk display (the difference between the original e-readers and modern eInk update speeds is quite incredible) yet then they go and plug Wifi into it…
If they’re going for deliberate low tech, why not just have it write to a small USB thumb drive / SD card rather than faff around with WiFi and online storage?
Or conversely, if you do want the higher tech route, why not include a small 2G modem like the amazon kindles do? Same online connectivity without the hassle of WiFi passwords and sign-ins.
I like the idea of this device, just not how they’ve designed it 
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30 minutes a day? Definitely for hipsters and not real writers.
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Probably. I am charging it every time I bring it home. I really had a bad time with the firmware thing.
So, do the math: 30x0.5= 15 hours of typing time per charge. That’s at the head of the pack as far as modern laptops go. And yet, not so great when you consider it’s running an e-ink screen and probably has tablet or e-reader class chips inside. A teardown would probably reveal a small tablet sized battery and a lot of empty space.
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I basically just kill the X server on my regular laptop to achieve that effect. Wasting time isn’t all that far away, but it’s just far enough.
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I did…for $20!!
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I get that this is geared towards a specific subset of people, and it’s in an early adopter phase, but it sounds like too much money for too little functionality. I half expect the folks at Make: to come up with something that works twice as well for a fraction of the price.
I like the idea that @codinghorror put up. Although I tried a mechanical keyboard for the first time since childhood today and fell in love… so there’s that.
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Is there such a thing as stunt design/marketing? Writing has been part of my work life for a long, long time (hint: first production machine was a Remington portable manual), and I can’t see any way that the Freewrite would be more functional than any of my current devices (desktop, laptop, tablet+Bluetooth keyboard, paper+pen). The notion of a first-draft-only application that saves to some cloud service rather than a local hardware device strikes me as the opposite of functional. And the no-edit part? Even a legal pad works better for on-the-spot second-thought composition. (I’m aware of the constant-flow school of writing. I’m not an adherent.) The psychological “no distractions” part I suppose is an individual matter, but the means I employ to get work done probably fall under the headings of “good work habits” and “fear of the editor’s displeasure,” with occasional doses of “spousal nudging” as needed.
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Or maybe “as cheap as possible eInk display”. This is a design-concept niche product, I bet their margins are pretty thin.
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I honestly don’t get the design. Those plastic “bumps” waste a lot of real estate that could be better-employed by a larger display… and for what, bigger switches? It needs three switches, they could have easily gone on the sides.
The Alphasmart saw a lot of use in schools. It was popular tool for kids and adults that had graphomotor issues. I used one from middle school all the way to high school. Also it could keep a charge for almost 2 weeks with normal use. Also the Alphasmart was cheap enough that an inner city kid with a working poor mother could afford it.
Also aren’t most writers poor? 500 dollars is a lot to ask when there are other tools that do a much better job at distraction free writing.
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Cute toy.
Why only four lines?
Why not a fourteen line display, for the poets?
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I had a Smith-Corona word processor I lugged to college in 1989. The keyboard was quiet enough I could write for hours while my roommate slept in the same room. It was only noisy when I printed what I’d written, since it then turned into an automatic typewriter.
There were also power issues. It was only portable as far as the cord would reach.
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Pretty much the same experience as @jlw, except without as many power issues. I’ve been enjoying writing on it–the combination of mechanical keyboard, front-lit e-ink, and no-editing workflow has hit a sweet spot for me. I like the look of the Freewrite and the actual typing experience a lot better than on the Alphasmart, but the Alphasmart still has the battery-life and portability edge to go with the much lower price for a used unit. They’re both niche products, and neither one is exactly perfect, but both have a lot going for them.
Softwarewise, Freewrite has a ways to go yet, but I’m pretty confident that the Astrohaus folks are working on it. I’m also hoping for the ability to mod it with a bigger after-market battery–it’s basically running on a Kindle battery now, and all that empty case real estate could accommodate something a lot beefier.
