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BYOK – Bring Your Own Keyboard
- DrillShopper 1y agoThe standalone device's display reminds me of the Apple LCD display for the //c: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIc#Portability_enhancements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIc#Portability_enhancem...
- rickcarlino 1y agoCool idea, you should consider adding a photo of the device on the landing page. It did not make sense until I clicked into the device page (Firefox mobile iOS).
- ranger_danger 1y agoAgreed... even as someone I consider much more curious than the average consumer, the fact that there were no pictures or easy description of what this is, made me close the tab right away.
- joshmarinacci 1y agoI’ve been considering making something like this since usb host support showed up on the raspberry pico. My dream is something like this with an eInk screen for weeks long battery life n
- weare138 1y agoI'm from GenX. I remember these. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart
- philips 1y agoIf you want to relive your glory days someone is making an open source version. https://www.crowdsupply.com/zerowriter/zerowriter-ink https://www.crowdsupply.com/zerowriter/zerowriter-ink
- kcplate 1y agoWhen I started out in the eighties I was maintaining (repairing) these little monsters for a major daily newspaper. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100 Those Alphas were the upgrades. Fancy!
- mattbee 1y agoI've still got one! I can't believe anyone loved them though, they miss key presses if you type too fast.
- donatj 1y agoI work with a couple people who worked on these, and own one myself!
- EvanAnderson 1y agoI love little computer-shaped devices. I had a Laser PC4 in the early 90s: https://oldcomputermuseum.com/laser_pc4.html https://oldcomputermuseum.com/laser_pc4.html I wish I still had it just to noodle around on. I picked up a Cambridge Z88 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Z88 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Z88) at a Goodwill a couple years ago but haven't done much of anything with it. Apparently they have quite the following.
- akpa1 1y agoThese saw use in my secondary school for SEND kids as late as 2019. I did not realise just how old they were.
- voidhorse 1y agoGlad to see it has a micro SD. My main gripe with the freewrite (and to a lesser extent, this option) is the whole cloud/app/document management offering. I get that those features are important to several people, but I am happy to pull data from the device on occasion, or to back things up via git myself. Having to lock in to some vendor's cloud thing without any alternative is an instant way to make a device untenable for me personally.
- fnord77 1y agoSo you can get a working vintage Smith Corona hardware word processor for under $100. Probably much less at a garage sale.
- kstrauser 1y agoSure, but I don’t want to keep one in my EDC bag.
- mavilia 1y agoIf you wanna DIY then you could achieve something similar with the open source ZeroWriter https://github.com/zerowriter/zerowriter1 https://github.com/zerowriter/zerowriter1
- schwartzworld 1y agoOr an Eink phone/tablet and a Bluetooth keyboard.
- KevinCarbonara 1y agoWanting to DIY is one of the distractions BYOK is seeking to combat
- orphea 1y agoAnd $200 is another.
- mwambua 1y agoWhy do none of these have larger displays? I imagine it's annoying to type without the ability to at least skim over the last page of content? Are larger monochrome displays just harder to procure?
- SwiftyBug 1y agoI think they aimed for a very portable format. I think it's a bit took much especially considering that you will be already carrying a keyboard anyway.
- scripturial 1y agoThis is already relatively large for this type of display. There is no market for these types of screens at a larger size. (They are mostly used in products that are not connected to a computer such as a controller panel for a factory, or mechanical device.)
- ajsnigrutin 1y agoWhy is this so expensive? Raspberrypi zero 2w + some stripped down OS that boots directly to an editor, lcd display and a nice case would be much cheaper. Also easier to implement other stuff, like different fonts, use your own 'cloud' to sync stuff (and not being forced into a subscription), etc.
- the__alchemist 1y agoI believe this is equivalent to lamenting that the price of tea in a shop is more than the tea bag's price.
- ajsnigrutin 1y agoSure, but here we're talking about 20euros for a PG Tips teabag and some water in a weird cup (eg ) At some point you ask yourself if it's worth it, and in both cases, for me, it isn't. https://goat-story.com/collections/coffee-mugs/products/goat-mug-marsala https://goat-story.com/collections/coffee-mugs/products/goat...
- TylerE 1y agoBecause a bag of parts isn’t a functioning device, and things like labor and customer support cost money? Things like a “nice case” can only be done affordably when you’re stamping out tens of thousands of the things.
- ajsnigrutin 1y agoSure, but the full price is $200, which is already in the cheap laptop range. With much more functionality, more expensive parts and yes, with labor and customer support. ASUS E410 is $159 currently on Bezos' website.
- nkrisc 1y agoWait until you find out the BOM for every device costs less than the retail price.
- joeblubaugh 1y agoIf you’re charging $200 you should really be able to see more than 15 lines of text at a time. I know the idea is to be distraction-free but it’s hard to justify over a basic writing app on the phone you already own, which includes a nicer screen.
- PStamatiou 1y agoYea for me having lots of vertical real estate is important while writing. iPad Mini (or Daylight Computer if you care about working outdoors) in portrait orientation combined with any number of writing apps seems like a great solution.
- Aurornis 1y agoWhere do you see 15 lines? In the video they show the 3 text size modes. The smallest text size only shows 8 lines, even though the text on the screen claims it goes to 11: https://youtu.be/5hV8xfhdk7c?t=208 https://youtu.be/5hV8xfhdk7c?t=208 (3:28) I can't imagine 15 lines of text on a low resolution screen like that. I like the concept of the device, but I must not be the target audience at all. I can't imagine spending time writing on a low-resolution, tiny LCD display like that for any extended period of time. Even the response time of the LCD looks painfully slow in the video. The letters slowly fade into view as they're being typed. They only show the typing for a couple seconds so if you blink you'll miss it in the demo video. This is in contrast to the campaign's claims of zero latency and high responsiveness Apparently there's a market for it, though, because they have a lot of Kickstarter backers.
- joeblubaugh 1y agoI was being generous by guessing based on the small font, and what I think would be the bare minimum for myself.
- Workaccount2 1y agoThe question is how gimped the device is going to be if you don't want to lease their software monthly? There is a special place in hell for people who make hardware that runs static software, but still withhold ownership just so they can indefinitely bilk money from you.
- ddejohn 1y ago> so they can indefinitely bilk money from you Or just stop supporting altogether, a la Spotify Car Thing.
- dsr_ 1y ago"Universal keyboard compatibility" -- bah! I have working keyboards in my possession that this thing cannot connect to. - No ADB port for a Mac keyboard - No Sun Type 5 Mini-DIN - No PS/2 port - No PC keyboard port - No Newton serial keyboard port - No RJ11 for an LK-201 So much for universal.
- TZubiri 1y agoI'd like to see that collection of keyboards Do you have any interesting layout and language variations?
- dsr_ 1y agoNot really; I have pretty much the "standard" keyboard for each of a bunch of systems. The most interesting thing about them is the range of variability in quality. Some of that is survivorship bias, but I think it's remarkable that the Newton MP2000's keyboard works at all -- as far as Apple products go, it looks like a product of the middle Mac age but feels like the worst membrane HP ever shipped with their bottom-range consumer PCs.
- ciupicri 1y agoBy PC keyboard port are you referring to AT? [1] [1] https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/pc-hardware-in/059600513X/ch19s03s01.html https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/pc-hardware-in/05960051...
- dsr_ 1y agoYes, although I think that one of the keyboards I have is from an XT.
- curtisszmania 1y ago[dead]
- ryukoposting 1y agoThere's a guy I see at my local coffee shop who uses a word processor. Based on what I found on eBay, I think it might be an AlphaSmart. If so, it would have run him about $75. I thought about getting a similar device, as I also write a lot, but settled on a $90 used laptop instead. Not seeing the case for spending $175 and only getting half a word processor. If portability was the goal, an external keyboard goes against that. If the goal was better ergonomics, the screen wouldn't be the size and shape of a table tent. So... why?
- _345 1y agoits a toy for techies. i see crap like this on youtube all the time. useless and impractical tech that people gobble up because were all children at heart and we like toys even if we're grown ups now. but it annoys me nonetheless because i always can't help but think "when would i ever use this...?"
- notjulianjaynes 1y agoI once wrote a ~2,000 word draft,on an alpha-smart ($6 at a goodwill) and then couldn't get the transfer to computer function to work correctly, so I had to rewrite the whole thing because I wasn't gonna sit there and manually re-type three lines at a time from the grayscale LCD. The subsequent draft was actually better though, so for this reason I would recommend such a device. It's also a fun novelty thing. Really though, if you keep getting distracted from your writing, maybe consider if it's because you don't actually have anything to say?
- wenc 1y agoWriting things twice is actually a technique for improving quality. https://grantslatton.com/software-pathfinding https://grantslatton.com/software-pathfinding
- wenc 1y agoThere are a bunch of distraction-free writing devices, from the BYOK to the Freewrite. They range for $100 - $500. List here: https://kadavy.net/distraction-free-writing-devices/ https://kadavy.net/distraction-free-writing-devices/ To me, YAGNI. Let me suggest two cheaper alternatives (battletested by me): 1. Fountain pen and a nice notebook with nice paper (Mnemosyne, or Rhodia) 2. A foldable Bluetooth butterfly keyboard ($43 on Amazon) paired to an old tablet (I have an old iPad Air 2) with Wifi turned off and no apps except a writing app. Google Docs works in offline mode! (this is what I use in cafes when I’m traveling). I recommend a Samsers keyboard. This is what I have: https://a.co/d/3kIJZsv https://a.co/d/3kIJZsv I love good typography and I just can’t with these distraction free devices. The iPad Air 2 has a retina screen that displays beautiful typography. Forget e-ink devices — they might sound like a good idea at first, but their refresh rate is slow enough to be annoying. If you don’t need portability, an old DOS PC running Wordstar or WordPerfect is also distraction free. I used to write long articles for my school newsletter using nothing but Wordstar.
- jimbob45 1y ago1. Fountain pen and a nice notebook with nice paper (Mnemosyne, or Rhodia) Spending money is overrated. The pen at the back of your junk drawer from a hotel you don’t remember staying at will do just fine. There’s a notebook in there too that’s as good as new if you just rip out the first page.
- teo_zero 1y ago> The pen at the back of your junk drawer from a hotel you don’t remember staying at will do just fine. Vehemently disagree! Few things hurt on my nerves more than a pen that leaves ink spots behind, or works intermittently, or needs excessive pressure on the paper...
- john_the_writer 1y agoAgreed, but sometimes a nice pen, and a paper makes the task more fun.
- jval43 1y ago
- Xevion 1y agoHonestly, this just looks like someone made a really basic writing app as a demo project on an LCD, and then their friend said "You could totally sell this" and then they ran with that. This is a "solution" looking for a problem.
- mnky9800n 1y agoI don’t understand the point of a distraction free writing device. I am constantly flipping out of what I’m writing to go look at codes, chat with ai, read papers or tutorials, and then back to what I am writing. I realise I may not be the target audience. I guess if I was writing fiction then I wouldn’t want a distraction.
- KevinCarbonara 1y agoI've never understood these devices. I get that they're for people who just don't have impulse control, and need some sort of hard separation between play and work. But inevitably, these devices become the abstraction. People obsess over the features and look for upgrades and otherwise immerse themselves in trivialities, because buying a device still doesn't improve your impulse control.
- Tepix 1y agoThere are studies that show that having your phone in the desk in front of you lowers your test scores, even if it is turned upside down.
- wenc 1y agoWriting isn’t a linear process. You need to keep enough of a context window viewable and to scroll/jump to different parts quickly. Devices without fast refresh or a large enough screen are unsuitable for many of today’s writers except for the very few who write linearly (streams of consciousness). A word processor is a tool of thought. You need to be able to manipulate thoughts easily in it. Small devices don’t serve this purpose well.
- SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago"distraction-free" because there's nothing else on that screen. But it's another screen. There will be other distracting screens, if only a smartphone screen. We have just moved the problem into hardware.
- Tepix 1y agoI have an alternate proposal: • buy a ball-head typewriter. Very satisfying to write on. And you get to see your text on paper right away. • modify it to have a USB interface • setup a Pi Pico to log all text entered on the typewrite • when you connect the Pi Pico to your PC it replays the entered text at high speed.
- flobosg 1y agoSee also the many iterations of the Micro Journal: https://github.com/unkyulee/micro-journal https://github.com/unkyulee/micro-journal
- HumblyTossed 1y agoLooking at the app, for people who write, say fiction, do you really write like that where everything is broken out and summarized?
- kebokyo 1y agoThis seems like something you could make yourself for under $50. Pi Zero W2, battery, cheap LCD screen, and 3D-printed case. The only exceptions would be a) the extra physical buttons (requiring a custom PCB) and the amber backlight (not sure if you can get a screen that comes with one, or if you’d need to get it separately and install it yourself). If I had more experience in making stuff like this (and money to buy the components and other tools I’ll need to make it), as soon as I saw the price of this thing I would have started making my own clone right away and thrown the code and hardware specs on GitHub.
- littlekey 1y agoI just don't understand why all of these distraction-free devices use screens that are so small they're basically unusable. What's the point?