Freewrite Traveller

So occasionally a gadget comes along that is different. These days they are few and far between, but they stand out when you first see them. I’m typing this on one such gadget right now… The Freewrite Traveler.

Not heard of it? Neither had I until recently. It was a crowd-funded project it seems, but it passed me by. This is the second version of the product.

So what is it? It is a distraction-free writing system. Basically a keyboard and a decent sized e-ink display, probably the size of one and a half paperback books when the lid is closed. What’s wrong with a laptop I hear you ask. Well a laptop does everything, including giving you access to Facebook, Twitter and all the other time-wasting, distracting possibilities. It is the ultimate procrastination machine! The Traveler does one thing and that is to let you type. You are not distracted by anything. Editing in itself can be distracting, so they have made it possible, but difficult to do. The idea there is that you just… type. Forget the mistakes, just get that content down and edit it later when you transfer it elsewhere to publish it wherever it is destined for.

I came across the Traveler when browsing Amazon recently and could not resist it as it was offered at a very good price. I am not disappointed one tiny bit, I love it. It works, it really works, and it is rather beautiful. The build and styling is superb and is just a massive pleasure to use and look at. It connects to wifi and that is purely for backup of your work and firmware updates. There are three ways it can backup: 1. to a cloud account you have access to, 2. to Evernote (another product that I use daily and could not do without), Dropbox and Google Drive if you prefer and finally 3. it can email to a preset email address.

If you’re hovering, I hope this helps. The keyboard feels good, it looks good, the display is up to the purpose, it works well and I am getting work done!