u/Edu_Robsy

AFAIK the Freewrites get the current date using the Internet connection. They don't have/use an internal timer/calendar and, therefore, if you don't have Internet connection, they keep the date from the latest successful one.

Therefore, if you're on the go and don't have an Internet connection, when you get it back, everything gets synced to that previous connection date, accumulating all your drafts in a sole date, no matter when you really wrote them.

It could easily broke your "day streak" in Postbox, but the most important part is that the real draft's date gets lost. So, in order to work properly, you need Internet connection with your Freewrites. Say bye-bye to that dream of going away without Internet coverage just with your Astrohaus device to write.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?

It might seem silly, but these simple stats from Astrohaus Freewrite are helping me a lot to develop a writing habit. As you can see, I use different Freewrite devices and also non-Freewrite writerdecks, such as an Alphasmart Neo2 and a Pomera, but I dump all those texts into Sprinter so that all adds up on Postbox.

This is another "modular" smart typewriter consisting in just two hardware elements:

- Penna mechanical bluetooth keyboard with diamond keycaps and Cherry MX Blue switches

- Hisense Touch HiFi with backlighter eInk screen and Android OS

I bought both devices in different marketplaces for a fraction of its original price tag.

As writing software I use the excellent iA Writer for Android (discontinued) that supports many options and has markdown format support.

It's indeed an inexpensive yet powerful combination and an alternative to the Freewrite Smart Typewriter with the following improvements:

- No lag at all: the Hisense Touch has a high refresh rate mode. It's much faster than the Freewrites with Sailfish firmware (3.0.2). The words appear instantly in the screen.

- Night mode! With dark background and clear letters that makes it even more confortable to type in low light environments.

- Many more connectivity options to transfer the texts, but you can also use the Sprinter web and add your texts to Astrohaus' Postbox cloud service.

- Extra bonus for the side lever that is a very intuitive system to save and replay keyboard macros.

I'm really enjoying it.

Yay or nay?

In the quest of finding the perfect writer deck or, if you prefer, the perfect writing machine, I've been testing very different setups. I started with an Alphasmart Neo that was soon joined by a Pomera DM100 and a Neo2, plus different ad-hoc combinations, such as an updated Sony Vaio P11z, a Hisense Touch HiFi with an external keyboard, an old iPad mini with a matching keyboard and the like.

I love the Neos, but even with the Renaissance Wireless Receiver the syncing process was not that friendly and, moreover, the lack of different keyboard layouts made it a bit difficult to type in Spanish. The same goes for the Pomera, even if the form factor is perfect and the regular AA batteries made it very convenient.

After Astrohaus' pushy newsletters and enticing marketing I was able to find an Alpha for less than half the price at an online markeplace. I expected an updated Neo but it was a step back, because of how limited the software was: no dedicated cursor keys, no copy&paste, smaller screen. It was too different from my regular workflow and writing style. It ended up in a cupboard.

I decided to go full analog and retrieve my Olivetti Lettera 32. I managed to type on it daily for two months, at least two pages every day (about 1,200-1,500 words). I got used to the typewriter mechanics: the hard typing, the noise, the frequent typos and mistakes.

And after that, I tried to give the Alpha another chance, and curiously enough, it worked this time. After a full analog season, the transition to a Freewrite device was frictionless and I got used to it easily. I typed dayly, although it was more journaling than creative writing. I wrote several articles for different magazines and blogs.

The Alpha has some interesting strengths: instant-on, mechanical keyboard, send button and compact format, perfect for lap typing. But the venom was already on my veins, and after learning about the «Sailfish» firmware update that reduced eInk lag, I wanted to try another Freewrite device.

Last friday I received a second hand Traveler. Again, I was able to buy it for less than half the retail price and it was in perfect condition, with no ghost key issues, battery swelling and the like. It was factory reset to the 1.1.6 firmware version and I had a bad time to move it forward to the 3.0.2 versions, but I managed to do it. After that, it was plagued by random reboots after less than one minute typing. Desperate again, I struggled to test all the solutions described in Reddit to no avail. After a random combination of regular resets, software resets, logouts and WiFi on and off, I started to work properly, without unannounced reboots.

I'm currently writing this post on my Traveler and I must say that it's a pleasure to type on it. The eInk screen is big enough and very clear. The scissor keyboard is quiet and responsive, with the same exact size as the Alpha, with a decent travel distance.

And so, now I'm torn: I really don't know which one I prefer. Let me make a quick comparisson:

- Form factor: both are quite portable and light, but the Traveler's clamshell design takes half the space in my backpack and is more protected.

- Screen: Traveler's eInk is clearer that the Alpha's LCD, but LCD is more responsive although smaller. None of them are backlighted (I've got the older Alpha model).

- Keyboard: Alpha's mechanical keyboard is nice one that you get used to the flat caps, it has the right amount of feedback, but it's a bit noisy even with silicon O-rings and the spacebar is loud. The Traveler's non mechanical keyboard has a shorter travel length but it's better than the one in the Neo/Neo2 for sure and very quiet. If you need to type on quiet environments, I'd go for the Traveler.

- Battery life: so far, so good. The Alpha gives you about 100 hours with a full charge. Astrohaus' is less clear about the Traveler and the website says that it provides about four weeks of regular use. I wonder how many hours that is. I suppose that the Alpha wins here.

- Software: updating the Traveler's firmware and getting it to work properly took quite some time. The Alpha, on the other side, appears to be more reliable and crisp. The Traveler put my patience to the test. So far, the Alpha has provided a better user experience, although once properly setup, both have very similar software features. The main difference is that the Alpha doesn't have the A/B/C folders to organize your different documents.

- Looks: they are weird looking machines when you compare them to a modern day laptop. The Traveler is clearly inspired in the Pomera (DM100, DM200, DM250) form factor, whereas the Alpha is heavily influenced by the Alphasmarts. Both are made of plastic. The Traveler's outer shell is a fingerprint magnet but it looks more "professional". The Alpha is more plasticky and looks a bit toy-alike. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that despite the looks, the Alpha could accept a rougher treatment than the Traveler. It could get a beating without problem. I don't think that the Traveler would survive even a small fall. Time will judge that.

Overall, even if they are very different machines (LCD vs eInk, slab vs clamshell) they offer very similar use cases. I probably should not have bought both, but I did, and so I suppose that I'll have to keep them both, unlucky me.

In my opinion, if you already have one, it doesn't make sense to buy the other. In any case, I like them both but I cannot justify paying the full retail price. At least in the EU they are very expensive and quite rare: I had to wait quite some time in order to find them in the second hand market. They are overpriced but they are good at what they do best. Don't approach them if you want to edit in them or if you expect a wordprocessor experience. It's not the case: they are type-forward-only devices.

Well, well, well.

It doesn't find updates even if it's connected to a working wifi network and "sending" and "syncing" work fine.

Any clues to solve the problem and update to Sailfish?

Nothing new, but I wanted to share this workflow with you. This is a very simple but useful approach to add some cloud support to the good and old Alphasmart and integrate these devices in the Astrohaus/Freewrite apps:

1. Register a free account -if you don't have one already- at Postbox service: [https://postbox.getfreewrite.com/sign-up\](https://postbox.getfreewrite.com/sign-up)

2. Enter at the Sprinter website and make sure that you are already logged to your Postbox account: [https://sprinter.getfreewrite.com/\](https://sprinter.getfreewrite.com/)

3. Plug your Alphasmart to your PC/tablet/smartphone and "send" the text that you typed. It will be typed into the Sprinter and automatically saved to Postbox. It takes about 4 minutes for 1,000 words in my setup.

4. Et voilà! Your text is already available at your Postbox account: the words that you typed will be added to your daily statistics, it could be accessed from any Internet enabled device, edited again in Sprinter and synced to Google Drive and the other supported cloud services (Dropbox, Evernote, Onedrive). And the best of it all: it's free.

Of course, not everyone wants/needs to have their texts uploaded to a third party cloud system. Astrohaus services are reliable up to a point, but so far they've worked fine for me. In my current workflow, this is quite convenient. And if you have the premium service, Postbox Plus, you can send the texts that you typed in your Alphasmart back to your Freewrite Smart Typewriter or your Freewrite Traveler.

It's not as convenient as a wireless transfer and you need to plug the Alphasmart to an Internet connected device, but it adds -at least, for me- some interesting usage options. And if you plug your Alphasmart to your smartphone, you can make cloud backups of your typed texts on the go.

Nothing new, but I wanted to share this workflow with you. This is a very simple but useful approach to add some cloud support to the good and old Alphasmart and integrate these devices in the Astrohaus/Freewrite apps:

1. Register a free account -if you don't have one already- at Postbox service: https://postbox.getfreewrite.com/sign-up

2. Enter at the Sprinter website and make sure that you are already logged to your Postbox account: https://sprinter.getfreewrite.com/

3. Plug your Alphasmart to your PC/tablet/smartphone and "send" the text that you typed. It will be typed into the Sprinter and automatically saved to Postbox. It takes about 4 minutes for 1,000 words in my setup.

4. Et voilà! Your text is already available at your Postbox account: the words that you typed will be added to your daily statistics, it could be accessed from any Internet enabled device, edited again in Sprinter and synced to Google Drive and the other supported cloud services (Dropbox, Evernote, Onedrive). And the best of it all: it's free.

Of course, not everyone wants/needs to have their texts uploaded to a third party cloud system. Astrohaus services are reliable up to a point, but so far they've worked fine for me. In my current workflow, this is quite convenient. And if you have the premium service, Postbox Plus, you can send the texts that you typed in your Alphasmart back to your Freewrite Smart Typewriter or your Freewrite Traveler.

It's not as convenient as a wireless transfer and you need to plug the Alphasmart to an Internet connected device, but it adds -at least, for me- some interesting usage options. And if you plug your Alphasmart to your smartphone, you can make cloud backups of your typed texts on the go.

Some days ago I posted about a simple way to adapt the Alphasmart Neo/Neo2 fonts to simulate an Spanish keyboard layout: https://www.reddit.com/r/writerDeck/s/QuHOYTqqcp

The idea was already in use by the German and Swedish Alphasmart users, but I couldn't find anything like that for Spanish, so I made my own using all the excellent free programs available around.

To make it even easier for the users that want to try it, I've converted some of the NeoFonts (v.1.5) free fonts created by tSoniq, so that they work now like a Spanish keyboard layout. You can download the full package here: https://www.robsy.net/neofontses.zip

The package includes the following fonts: BoldES (6 lines), MicroES (7 lines), NanoES (8 lines), FemtoES (9 lines), AttoES (11 lines). With these fonts, you can type in the Alphasmart Neo/Neo2 as if it had a Spanish keyboard layout.

It also includes the instructions to do it with your preferred fonts, including the built-in ones, that are still under copyright protection.

I hope that some of you will find it useful.

I love the Alphasmart Neo/Neo 2 concept and I consider them to be excellent solutions for distraction free writing. The problem is that, so far, they don't support installing different keyboard layouts. Spanish is not included and that is very inconvenient because Spanish uses a lot of different letters and signs. All these signs are supported in the original English layout, but they require key combinations that are not natural for Spanish users (Alt+E, shift+A to get Á, for example). We need an easier way to type in Spanish in our good old Neos.

I already knew of German people changing the font in order to swap Y and Z, and I wondered if something like that could be done for the Spanish language.

I found this: https://github.com/mls-m5/neofontlib . And they have set up an online version of the tool that works pretty well: https://lasersköld.se/neo-font-editor/ . Credits to the author/s. This tool lets you swap letters with relative ease. Let me explain the process:

# How-to

1. Go to https://lasersköld.se/neo-font-editor/
2. Upload your favorite Neo font (OS3KApp extension). I use two custom fonts: Nano and Micro, by tSoniq, that you can download from The Internet Archive, but it will also work with the built-in fonts. The 1.5 version of the NeoFont package can be downloaded here: http://web.archive.org/web/20190705003644/http://tsoniq.com/software/legacy/neo-fonts/
3. Once successfully uploaded the font, substitute the text on the second textbox with my own "US to Spanish" keymap. It's a plain text file that you can download here: https://www.robsy.net/map_es.txt
4. Now it's time to convert and download the adapted font using the button "Encode and download".
5. If everything went fine, you'll get another OS3KApp that you can install in your Alphasmart Neo. Use the Neo Manager to upload it.
6. If you don't use Windows, I'd suggest installing NeoTools that is a package that provides a command line tool to do so. In my setup, to upload the adapted font to my Neo, I'd use the following command: neotools applets install -fy "Nano-(8-lines).OS3KApp"

Use the right filename for your own font. The command line switches are "f" to force uploading the same file and "y" for skipping confirmation.

# Usage

Now that you have your modified font installed, you can type as if the Neo/Neo2 had a Spanish layout installed. For example, the "Ñ" key is the one to the right of the "L" key. Type as if you had a Spanish keyboard and you'll get the right result on your screen.

Well, not exactly. For example, if you use accents or umlauts they will show as an independent letter. If you type "grave accent" and "A", it'll show as "´A" instead of "Á", because we're not reprogramming the Neo to have "dead" keys. But when you transfer your texts from the Neo to your PC, if your system is configured with an Spanish layout, you'll get the correct "Á", as expected.

If you type the following text in your Neo:

El Señor Ram´on S´anchez Ag¨uero naci´o en Besançon, ¿verdad?

You'll have the following text in your PC after "sending" it:

El Señor Ramón Sánchez Agüero nació en Besançon, ¿verdad?

Not bad at all. It improves usability for Spanish speaking Neo/Neo2 users.

# Things that won't work

This simple trick is a step in the right direction, but it has some issues that I want you to know:

1. Even if you see an "Ñ" in the screen and it becomes an "Ñ" when you send it to your PC, it is internally another char. Because of this, sending the text using the Neo Manager or NeoTools instead of the simple "send" will show the original char instead of the "Ñ". Happens to all changed characters.
2. Because of this, it also happens when you print directly from the Neo/Neo2 to the printer via USB: all letter remain unchanged and you'll see the internal/original font of the Alphasmart in your printed copy.
3. All major keys have been included, but not all of them work perfectly because of the way in which the Neo/Neo 2 send the special chars to the PC. It user the Alt+ASCII code method that only works in Windows, but not in other OS.

# Final words

Changing the original firmware to include different layouts would be the perfect solution, and I think that there's people working it out. At least, somebody commented at r/AlphaSmart that was working it out.

This is a quick fix, but a useful one, at least for me. Converting your preferred font requires little effort using my map file and the available online tools, but once done you're good to go.

Contact me if you have further questions regarding this. Credits to the authors of NeoFont, NeoTools and the rest of third party software. I just produced the map file!

As promised, here are some pictures of my latest typewriter. It's an Olivetti Pluma 22, the Spanish name for the well known Lettera 22. "Pluma" means in Spanish both quill (or fountain pen) and also feather. I guess that "writing" and "lightness" together made a lot of sense for the marketing guys back then. Curiously enough, the Lettera 32 was launched in Spain as Lettera instead of Pluma. All the following portables were branded as Lettera too.

It arrived in very good condition with just a small issue that affected the bell that was soon repaired. It came with the original metal spools, but at the moment I'm using some plastic spools with nylon ribbon made in China. I found it at a second hand online marketplace for 40 EUR including shipment.

The typeface was a total surprise: it's a beautiful Cubic made by RaRo foundry in Berlin (Alfred Ransmayer & Albert Rodrian Vereinigte Typenfabriken). It's 10 CPI instead of the more common Olivetti's Quadrato 12 CPI. The capital M and the capital W are very distinctive.

It was made in Barcelona. Olivetti produced in Spain most of their portables, not only for the Spanish market, but also for exportation to many other countries, in sales that reached very high figures for the time. It peaked 5,500 employees at its prime, producing more than 600,000 typewriters just in 1963.

I need to improve the cleanliness of the print, as you can see in the samples. Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

If you don't mind, I'd leave you now, because there's still some nice light and I want to keep writing with my beautiful Olivetti.

I was looking for an inexpensive carry case/cover/sleeve for my Freewrite Alpha, so that I can put it in my backback without getting scratched. I opted for the most inexpensive one in Amazon, Aucase brand, size 11.6"-13". It was just 6 EUR with free shipment and it fits perfectly: waterproof, padded and with a nice zipper. IMHO much better than the official felt and leather sleeve for just a fraction of its price.

There are other colors available: I just picked the one that had the biggest discount. I'm more of a plain color guy, favoring black over all options, but I wasn't sure that it would fit. It does!

I bought a Spanish Olivetti Lettera 22 (branded as Olivetti Pluma 22 in Spain) in a second hand markeplace. It was 40 EUR including shipment.

After three weeks without changes in the shipment tracking status, the marketplace reimbursed the payment and also paid the seller because of the lost package. They charge you a separate fee for the insurance and so they used it.

I tried to get in contact with the shipment company anyway to complain. They discarded my complain after a couple of weeks, but it was finally delivered today nevertheless. It wasn't lost, after all. So I get it for free.

It gets even better: it's in very good condition and it has a really interesting typeface. I bought it thinking that it will be a common Pica (10 CPI), but the slugs show the number 85 and an anagram of the RaRo foundry, the Alfred Ransmayer & Albert Rodrian Vereinigte Typenfabriken in Berlin. In its own inventory of typefaces it's defined as Pica Cubic (10 CPI). It's indeed very different from the Quadrato font present in other Olivetti typewriters, number -777- without anagram (12 CPI).

The slugs need some cleaning, but even though it looks clean enough and beautiful. I'll post a full review later on.

I've acquired an HP 360LX palmtop and I'm currently testing it as a viable writerdeck. It uses Windows CE 2.0 that includes Pocket Word, Pocket Excel and Pocket PowerPoint in ROM. It has 8 MB RAM to use as program RAM and storage. It's touchscreen has a 640x240 resolution, 16 shades of gray and it's not as clear as in previous HP devices without a touch layer, such as the HP 95LX, 100LX or 200LX. In any case, it's still better than the one in my Casio Cassiopeia A20. It has a white backlight that is not very intense but good enough to improve readability and sufficient to type in pitch black darkness.

The CPU is a SH3 running at 60 MHz, good enough for my purposes. Boot time is 0 seconds after the initial boot. It stays in suspended state and so you push space and you're ready to type. That's very convenient for a writerdeck.

I wanted a compact writerdeck that could be carried in a (big) pocket. The keyboard is good enough for touchtyping. I manage to use just three fingers on each hand (big hands, big fingers) and without further practicing I reach a decent typing speed. The keyboard is a bit mushy, as suspected, but has enough feedback to let you type without looking at it. I wanted this particular device because it was localized in Spanish and so it had a Spanish keyboard with all the required special chars (Ñ, grave tilde, umlaut, ¿, ¡). Windows CE doesn't let you change neither the language nor the keyboard layout.

Pocket Word is limited for a wordprocessor, but good enough for a writerdeck. In the image you can see it running at fullscreen with a 14 pt bold Arial font. Very clear and easy on the eyes. No distractions on sight. The only missing function is wordcount. I've managed to find an additional application called WORDCOUNT.EXE, coded by Jason P. Nottingham in 1998, that works perfectly both with RTF and WPD (proprietary Word Pocket extension). You run it outside Pocket Word, but it's not a convoluted workflow because this little machine is good enough for multitasking (blessed be Alt+Tab).

It runs for many hours with just two AA alkaline batteries. It uses an additional CR2032 coin battery for preserving the RAM contents when you change the main batteries. I estimate that with my Eneloop it can run for 10-12 hours with an sparse use of the backlight. Using regular batteries for me is a plus, because it gives you unlimited run time: you can carry some extras to use anytime.

The easiest way to transfer files from the palmtop to my modern day PC is using a Compact Flash card. The HP 360LX has a native CF slot and also a PCMCIA card in which you can also add a CF with a PCMCIA adapter. I use an inexpensive CF card reader in the PC side that works great both in Windows and in Linux. RTF is probably the best format because it includes the character codification and is supported by most wordprocessing software. You can look around for a serial cable, but it's not practical. There are also PCMCIA modems and ethernet cards, but moving a CF card is easier and probably faster too.

There's supposed to be plenty of dedicated text and code editors available, but finding a download site for Windows CE 1.0 or 2.0 software is not that easy. Most of them are behind a paywall at HPC Factor, but if you're resourceful, you might find them in other sites. Not all software can be installed natively and you'll need a PC with an old Windows system and a custom serial cable (RS232).

It's a nice pocket computer that can be used today as a writerdeck with ease: add AA batteries and a CF card and you're ready to go. It's compact (183 mm x 94 mm x 29 mm), not really lightweight, at 460 grams (including stylus, CF and batteries) and with a decent enough keyboard. I wouldn't use it as my main writerdeck but it's an option if you're on the go with limited carry space and plan to write a bit.

I hope that you liked the minireview of this machine that has been around since the end of last century. It's still useful today if all you want to do is writing.

(Lamy Safari fountain pen for scale / BYOK also for size comparison)

Typing in my (sound dampened) Freewrite Alpha Lunar by the swimming pool, under the cool shadow of an olive tree. To add further sensory details, some sparrows are tweetting in the distance in an otherwise quiet morning. Not far from my deck chair there is a thick array of basil, pippermint and rosemary that brings a melange of fragrances that takes me far, far away.

Currently writing a novella about a guy who is facing a situation in which a life changing decision has to be made within a short deadline. I am facing the same scenario (not health related) in real life and I am using my character to explore the different potential outcomes in order to choose the best avenue.

The Alpha (just like the Alphasmart Neo/Neo 2) is perfect for lap typing. Light, portable and convenient: I can beam my texts from here.