Anyone ever used a Freewrite 'smart' typewriter?

[Dr. Drib]

Anyone familiar with the Freewrite smart typewriter? I stumbled upon this on the internet, and I had never heard of it. It looks sort of retro-cool. It's put out by some company named astrohaus.

https://getfreewrite.com/products/fr...art-typewriter

https://getfreewrite.com/pages/freewrite-photo-gallery

[Deskisamess]

They remind me of the old stand-alone word processors of the 80's.

I think I've seen this device, or one like it, talked about here on MR at some point over the last couple of years.

[Dr. Drib]

A few years back there was something called a Alphasmart Neo 2, also from Astrohaus. That model appears to be discontinued.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Anyone familiar with the Freewrite smart typewriter? I stumbled upon this on the internet, and I had never heard of it. It looks sort of retro-cool. It's put out by some company named astrohaus.

https://getfreewrite.com/products/fr...art-typewriter

https://getfreewrite.com/pages/freewrite-photo-gallery

Originally they called this word processor a "Hemingwrite" but got warned off from using that name. I was interested in these at first, but my two main problems were/are 1) Cost and 2) The inability to edit what you're writing. They tout this as a feature.

...As it comes, the Freewrite's editing functionality is limited to using the [backspace] key only. You can review what was written before using the [pg up] and [pg dn] keys but there is no way to move the cursor into the document or copy/paste. ...

...No, the Freewrite is not trying to punish you. Quite the opposite! It removes subconscious barriers and lets you write with maximum productivity. ...

It's possible they have changed this in the Freewrite 2, I don't know. I doubt it, though.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

A few years back there was something called a Alphasmart Neo 2, also from Astrohaus. That model appears to be discontinued.

No, the Alphasmart Neo and Neo 2 were produced by Alphasmart (along with earlier keyboards, the Alphasmart, Alphasmart Pro, Alphasmart 2000, Alphasmart 3000 and the Dana (the Dana was an "oddball" based on the Palm OS). Alphasmart was started by two Apple engineers — originally the company's name was Intelligent Peripherals, Inc, but was quickly changed to Alphasmart. They produced the first Alphasmart in 1993, in 2005 they sold out to Renaissance Learning (who designed their learning software around the Alphasmart devices). Renaissance Learning continued selling Alphasmarts to the education market, but they also created a division called Neo Direct for selling Alphasmarts to the general public. Renaissance Learning gave up on these in 2013, but they still provide some support.

I have a couple of these. Very nice keyboards that run about about a year on three AA batteries. They're widely available on eBay... but they're starting to get rarer and more expensive. A lot of schools had these things to teach typing, but it looks like the surplus is finally starting to run out.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...acat=0&_sop=15

[skb]

I was looking forward to getting one of these (when I think they were called...Hemingwrite?) when they were being developed. However, the cost just counted me out. Currently, they're $550 for me.

So I bought an Alphasmart Neo2 and frankly, it's fantastic - the ONLY downside is that you need an old USB cable to download the text. Very good for just thrashing out ideas and brain vomits. The one I use cost me $40. Bargain and super useful.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by rcentros

No, the Alphasmart Neo and Neo 2 were produced by Alphasmart (along with earlier keyboards, the Alphasmart, Alphasmart Pro, Alphasmart 2000, Alphasmart 3000 and the Dana (the Dana was an "oddball" based on the Palm OS). Alphasmart was started by two Apple engineers — originally the company's name was Intelligent Peripherals, Inc, but was quickly changed to Alphasmart. They produced the first Alphasmart in 1993, in 2005 they sold out to Renaissance Learning (who designed their learning software around the Alphasmart devices). Renaissance Learning continued selling Alphasmarts to the education market, but they also created a division called Neo Direct for selling Alphasmarts to the general public. Renaissance Learning gave up on these in 2013, but they still provide some support.

I have a couple of these. Very nice keyboards that run about about a year on three AA batteries. They're widely available on eBay... but they're starting to get rarer and more expensive. A lot of schools had these things to teach typing, but it looks like the surplus is finally starting to run out.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...acat=0&_sop=15

Thanks for correcting my error on that, and also for the additional information.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Thanks for correcting my error on that, and also for the additional information.

Astrohaus and Alphasmart are fairly easy to confuse, especially since they both produce(d) similar products in niche markets (though Alphasmart, at one time, was in a pretty big "educational" niche market). I really like the Alphasmarts and (I think) most writers who try them also like them — so I was kind of taking advantage of this to go into a little spiel about them.

I wouldn't mind trying a Freewrite some time, but the price and lack of editing ability push me away.

[binaryhermit]

In all seriousness, how the heck do you get the text you pounded out on this thing off the device, presumably to be edited elsewhere?

[Quoth]

It's been around in various forms for ages:
1) It's x2 too expensive.
2) Rubbish software.
3) Screen is too small.

Unless you have to write outdoors it's better to pull the curtains, dim the Matt LCD screen and have a decent room light that doesn't reflect off it.

Have somewhere where you won't be interrupted.
Turn off all phone, laptop, tablet notifications.
If you can't resist checking your favourite site rather than just looking up stuff, then disable the laptop internet access.

It's a niche product for particular people. It's poorly executed and too expensive, oh, I wrote that already!

[skb]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

In all seriousness, how the heck do you get the text you pounded out on this thing off the device, presumably to be edited elsewhere?

If you mean the Hemingwrite (or whatever its called) then I'm fairly sure it goes to the cloud (the clooouddd *waves arms around*).

As for the Alphasmart, you need an old style (the ones used to be used for printers) USB cable and then there's a button on the device for "send". I actually really like this option because, for me, as it slurps into Scrivener (or wherever) my Typinator still corrects the abbreviations and shortcuts I have set. It's slow-ish in today's term, but I just let it do its thing while I make tea.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

In all seriousness, how the heck do you get the text you pounded out on this thing off the device, presumably to be edited elsewhere?

Just connect it to a computer (or tablet) via a USB cable, open an editor or word processor on the computer or tablet, and hit SEND file. The file will flow into your word processor exactly as if you were typing (except a lot faster than I type).

EDIT: Here's a video about how they work. Unless you want to write screenplays, you'll probably only need to watch the first three or four minutes.

[Dr. Drib]

The image above reminds me a bit of that old, 1980s Radio Shack [Tandy] keyboard and tiny little LCD screen unit.

[astrangerhere]

When I was still teaching law, I used a free app called DarkRoom to write my lectures and essay exams. You can use it on Chrome, Windows, or the iSheep version WriteRoom for apple devices.
It displays a classic black screen with a green text like an old interface. you can change the size, color, and typeset of the font as well as the background color. You can set the page width (even when working in fullscreen) so as not to have 3000 characters in a line if you have a huge screen.

The app completely full screens whatever device you are on, so you cannot see anything else. As long as your volume is off, you won't get any alerts, etc. While I really like the notion of a dedicated device like the Freewrite or Alphasmart, I think that a smidgen of discipline and the right freeware can prevent the need for additional purchases.

My wife participates in NaNo every year and writes some daily. I offered to get her a Freewrite or comparable device, and she opted for an old laptop with the internet turned off.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

The image above reminds me a bit of that old, 1980s Radio Shack [Tandy] keyboard and tiny little LCD screen unit.

The keyboard is good — solid and responsive. The screen is not that small. In this picture they're using relatively big fonts (they can go bigger). It's not for WYSIWYG work, but you can install a font pack that will give you eight lines per screen. I normally use it with five or six lines per screen. But the whole idea basically is to ignore the screen and type.