I don’t know how Freewrite can use the word “free” in their company name. I adore the look & promise of their original Smart Typewriter, but $700 is far from free AND way too much!
Even their mid-tier Traveler comes in at $550 (I feel like Steve Martin in Father of the Bride when he declared, “A cake, Franck, is made of flour and water. My first car didn’t cost $1200” — THIS IS A CLAMSHELL KEYBOARD & A TINY E-INK SCREEN!!). I was actually hoping the Alpha would list for a reasonable $200 instead of its $350 sticker shock.
I’m probably digging the Alpha as it is the closest to the used Alphaworks Neo I picked up on eBay after remembering it while reading 9 Distraction-Free Writing Devices. In fact, it would have been exactly what I wanted, but we’re talking about some pretty old hardware and we all know how tough folks can be on keyboards. Mine had a few keys that didn’t work and thankfully the seller gave me a full refund.
The original Freewrite Smart Typewriter has been out there for a few years now and I know I’m not the only person drooling over it. I simply can’t understand why others haven’t entered into this market, including those who want to solely compete on price and bring this thing down. Again, the target price in my head is $200 and the manufacturer can still make some money.
There is the Zerowriter Ink with a pretty decent price of $230, but as far as I can tell it isn’t a REAL product I can buy and play with today. So, I went back to the “9 devices” post I referenced earlier and got me thinking about a small Android-based e-ink device coupled with a Bluetooth keyboard. Some digging around on Amazon ultimately got me to this setup — AND AT THE RIGHT PRICE!
Yes, you are right… this is NOT a completely dedicated device, but for me it is darn close as once I got it all setup I’m in the Google Docs app almost immediately and have a full-sized keyboard underneath my fingertips.
I also verified it worked great being online or offline as the Google app took care of all the magic. It is working great for me and already banged out my first body of work on it. Plus, it is so cute!!
The added bonus to me is the very nice feeling $30 keyboard as I can be as rough as I want on it without worry I might destroy my device.
