https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/20/can-distraction-free-devices-change-the-way-we-write

A fun read.

Full disclosure: I own a remarkable paper tablet, I owned an Alphasmart Neo, dabbled with Scrivener, iA Writer, read Matthew Kirschenbaums book "Track Changes". All mentioned in the article. I never bought a Freewrite, but often thought about it.

The tag line of the article:

The digital age enabled productivity but invited procrastination. Now writers are rebelling against their word processors.

And the best quote:

Computers made the writer’s life easier, until they made it harder.

What's your view on the Remarkable tablet? Is it easy to sync your writing so you can work with the text on a laptop later?

Thanks for his. Yes, a fun read. I'm more of a structured person, hence outlining, but there is much in the article that I can relate to.

It does strike me that the young author might not quite realize how much innovation occurred in earlier years. He writes:

"Then, in the late twenty-teens, focussed writing tools started cropping up everywhere."

I would say that this trend started earlier. The author himself notes that iA Writer was released in 2010, which is also around when WriteRoom was released. But there were already focused writing programs well before that. I believe Ulysses was released in 2003.

I'm also wonder about this statement about iA Writer:

"The app’s key innovation is “focus mode,” an option that vertically centers the sentence or paragraph being written and grays out everything else."

Was this really iA Writer's innovation? There were already apps before that with "Typewriter Mode" (or "Typewriter Scrolling") -- keeping the currently edited line in the middle of the screen. So that part wasn't an innovation. Was iA Writer indeed the first to introduce greying out other lines?

I agree, a fun read, quite a bit more so than most articles about the pursuit of distraction free devices.

My Alphasmart Neo was a way to write on a small sailboat without fear of dropping a thousand dollar Macbook overboard. It worked fine at anchor, but spent most of its long battery life at lunch, in my truck in parking lots, anywhere I was with a moment to write.

Some immunity to distraction by features is possible. I don't use Word so I can't speak for its distraction free mode. It sounds like how I often write, with toolbars and other edit window features turned off in my word processor.

Fonts aren't something I mess with while writing. Appearance needs to be set in styles, not willy-nilly. That realization came when I was participating in two writers groups, each with their own strict ideas of document formatting. All I had to do was load the right style set to have the right appearance for a group.

You can do that with Scrivener's compile feature. I found that the style sets supported by word processors like Mellel and Nisus were what I needed.

That article very much rang true. I had a Freewrite. I found it just after their Kickstarter campaign closed, and before their web site revealed certain details like no editing. And you couldn't delete a file, a feature I think was added later. I gave my Freewrite away.

Thanks for the link!

I loved my AlphaSmart Dana, and took it everywhere with me. I had a ton of Palm software on it, too, so it was seriously useful for all kinds of stuff, although I used it primarily for rapid writing.

It had a battery that lasted 20-30 hours. It was the kind of device you can literally "throw in a bag" – all solid-state, two SD card slots, clear (backlit) screen (albeit monochrome).

If they'd kept it up to date with modern connectivity, I'd undoubtedly still be using it. It synced perfectly with my elderly HP PC laptop, and I could use excellent Palm apps like ListPro on it.

IMHO it beats the ghastly, clunky FreeWriter hands down.

There's a significant demand for old Alphasmart Danas on the used market. It's still a fairly popular device. It's strange how the great devices like the Dana and the Pomera DM30 keep disappearing from the market while clunky, expensive versions like the Freewrite are thriving.

I do like the Remarkable, but only for notetaking. For document review it's painful. The highlighter has the most bizarre, inconsistent behavior you can imagine, and it doesn't even export real PDF highlights.

Oh, that's disappointing about the reMarkable. I love the concept, but have hesitated due to the (impressively high) price.

I totally agree with you about the mysterious disappearance of devices like the AlphaSmart keyboard-first devices. They're so useful! With a little updating (connectivity, the latest e-ink screen technology), they could be thriving once again.

I'd be delighted if somebody would bring out a cheap, laptop-shaped machine with a reasonable, 12-14" (maybe even monochrome) screen that lasted 30-40 hours and just did basic word processing. Given the current state of processors, batteries and screen technology, you wouldn't think that was a big ask. Instead, we get the grisly FreeWrite. How anyone can take that seriously is beyond me, but clearly there's a market out there. I'm sure users would flock to a simple keyboard-led device with a good screen and battery life.

It must be said that the latest Apple machines are amazing on battery life – I happily work for a day and a half on my MacBook Pro 14, even plugged into a big screen and with many programs running. It lasts much longer than my iPad! But it's not particularly light, and it certainly wasn't cheap! I'm delighted they've dropped the price on the M1 MacBook Air, but even that isn't cheap.

A couple of years ago, Samsung came up with an interesting concept involving the embedding of a mobile phone in an optimised keyboard/screen mounting. But as so often with Samsung, it was very experimental, quite expensive and didn't go anywhere (too many compromises, one of Samsung's great failings). Hm. Who fancies setting up a small company to develop a portable writing tool that people will really love... ? ;-)

Chris Thompson wrote:

There's a significant demand for old Alphasmart Danas on the used
market. It's still a fairly popular device. It's strange how the great
devices like the Dana and the Pomera DM30 keep disappearing from the
market while clunky, expensive versions like the Freewrite are thriving.

I do like the Remarkable, but only for notetaking. For document review
it's painful. The highlighter has the most bizarre, inconsistent
behavior you can imagine, and it doesn't even export real PDF
highlights.

I love my reMarkable 2 -– somewhat like I love a finely crafted pot. The pot is beautiful to look at and touch, not for cooking. The reMarkable 2 is beautiful to look at and touch. Rarely used for anything else. I would enjoy having the money back, but I am glad to have the device to admire.

I'm sure that's not the kind of endorsement the company would welcom.

I wanted a Remarkable. Still do, in fact. But I also discovered a silly fascination with fountain pens.

You can spend a fortune on good paper, or you can write on card stock. Regular Walmart 5x8 index cards aren't bad.

Real field journals are, of course, nicer, and I think I cut a dashing figure in the Starbucks with my fountain pen, my jodhpurs, and the rakish angle to my pith helmet.

Fashion is never an accident.

Cyganet wrote:

What's your view on the Remarkable tablet? Is it easy to sync your
writing so you can work with the text on a laptop later?

My notes mainly live on the tablet itself. They are synced and can be accessed from all my devices but cannot be edited elsewhere. You can email them to yourself and others directly from the tablet as a PDF or SVG (vector graphics) or converted to text via OCR. But that of course is a one-way process, not actual syncing.

(For the adventurous: there are integrations (e.g. with Obsidian) in various states of completion: https://github.com/topics/remarkable-tablet

I use the Remarkable mainly as a glorified PDF-Reader and for taking graphics-heavy notes. The screen is big enough that I can read most PDFs easily (Even A4 / Letter size) after automatically cropping the margins. I now much prefer PDFs optimized for print to re-flowing Epub documents. The ease of scribbling notes and adding highlights is almost like using paper. I use the syncing feature whenever I encounter a PDF I want to read later on any of my devices.

AlphaSmart was created in 1992 by two previous Apple Computer engineers, Ketan Kothari and Joe Barrus [with the mission to "develop and market affordable, portable personal learning solutions for the classroom" and to "deliver affordable, lightweight, rugged portable computing devices that are expandable, easy to use and manage, and provide exceptional battery life." Later, they changed the name of the company to AlphaSmart, Inc.

Owned a few back in the day. Clever device! Those were the days!

MadaboutDana wrote:

I loved my AlphaSmart Dana, and took it everywhere with me. I had a ton
of Palm software on it, too, so it was seriously useful for all kinds of
stuff, although I used it primarily for rapid writing.

It had a battery that lasted 20-30 hours. It was the kind of device you
can literally "throw in a bag" – all solid-state, two SD card
slots, clear (backlit) screen (albeit monochrome).

If they'd kept it up to date with modern connectivity, I'd undoubtedly
still be using it. It synced perfectly with my elderly HP PC laptop, and
I could use excellent Palm apps like ListPro on it.

IMHO it beats the ghastly, clunky FreeWriter hands down.

Boox Writer, an e-ink laptop, was in development about five years ago. Here is a Youtube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni2czAM2NDU

However, unfortunately, development stopped due to "lack of interest" and "latency":

https://goodereader.com/blog/e-paper/oynx-suspends-development-on-their-boox-writer

I ended up purchasing the Pomera200. Although it is not e-ink (it uses an LCD screen), I find it perfect as a distraction-free typewriter. Since it was made for the Japanese market, all the menus are in Japanese and there are some features which Japanese users will be delighed to have. (I type in Japanese as well as English, so I am pleased). I checked the manufacturer's webpage and it seems to have been discontinued for the Japanese market (as well as the other versions of Pomera). The manufacturer is selling the units on Amazon Japan for much less then they were when they first came out. Especially with the low value of the yen at the moment, purchasing the Pomera200 from Japan would be a real bargin.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/キングジム-KINGJIM-DM200クロ-デジタルメモ-DM200ブラック/dp/B01LXQZ4WI?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&language=en_US

Goodreader have a Youtube review of the Pomera200. They do not like the idea that it uses a LCD screen instead of e-ink. I do not have the Pomera DM30 to compare, however for my use, it works well, especially since I can adjust the screen brightness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BydcvhEr22g

However, the review of the DM30 shows a great e-ink screen. Watching this review makes me want to get one. It is shame that it is now discontinued.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naWkR6YbKqs

I am not associated with any of the manufacturers or sellers. I am just a user who hunting for the ultimate distraction-free type writer. :)