I’ve had my eye on Astrohaus Freewrite merchandise for some time. The firm has made every kind of keyboard-and-screen gadgets which might be designed to remove distractions and mean you can get down to only writing. But I may by no means fairly pull the set off and get myself away from my traditional writing apps, so I by no means critically thought of a Freewrite keyboard. Until now, that’s.
That’s as a result of at CES 2025 Astrohaus has simply introduced (by way of The Verge) the Freewrite Wordrunner, which ditches the display in favour of a standalone keyboard so you should utilize it with a tool and utility of your selecting. Instead of the same old Freewrite e-ink show, the Wordrunner has a phrase counter, a timer, a crimson joystick, and writing-focused keys in lieu of perform keys.
In different phrases, it appears the corporate’s tried to make a product that brings its concentrate on distraction-free writing to a standalone keyboard to be used with common writing apps on PC or different gadgets.
CEO Adam Leeb explains (by way of TechCrunch): “While avid gamers have a complete business creating specialised options for them, writers have been pressured to depend on general-purpose keyboards and add-on software program to trace their work. Wordrunner transforms this relationship by making the keyboard itself an energetic participant within the writing course of—not only a passive enter machine, however a real writing companion.”
According to The Verge, the phrase counter will monitor your phrase rely till you press reset, and the perform key replacements are used for issues resembling undo, redo, skipping between paragraphs, and so forth. The timer may, as an illustration, be used for pomodoro timing.
Because I do not like the concept of giving up my traditional writing apps—Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Scrivener, and Obsidian, for those who’re questioning—however I do like the concept of writing-focused peripherals, I used to be immediately roused to pleasure upon seeing these little mechanical counters atop the keyboard.
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But then I thought of it some extra and began to surprise simply how a lot sense it makes to port the distraction-free, writer-focused philosophy over to a standalone keyboard.
Sure, a bodily timer, phrase counter, and media-controlling joystick may discourage me from poking round outdoors the inside body of the textual content editor for some time. But will it cease me from getting distracted by that psychological side-quest that leads me down a two-hour YouTube rabbit gap? (Will something?)
I believe I will not understand how I really feel in regards to the keyboard till I get my arms on one, and never simply to check out its writing-focused options. Arguably extra essential than that’s typing sound and really feel—for those who’re typing all day, distractions or in any other case, then you are going to need one thing that feels and sounds good to kind on.
According to Engadget, the physique is heavy aluminium, and it options sound dampening. The switches are tactile Kailh ones and sadly aren’t hot-swappable. None of these items assure good typing sound and really feel although. That’s one thing that may solely be determined by truly making an attempt it out.
The Wordrunner has definitely received my curiosity piqued with its writing-focused additions, and if it might pull off the typing high quality side, too, it may be the Freewrite product I’ve been in search of. No phrase on pricing but, although, though you may reserve precedence entry for $1.
Or, maybe I ought to simply make the leap and get the beautiful however extremely costly Freewrite Smart Typewriter for *gulp* $649.
