Retro writing 15 – Pomera DM250

...and my current writing setup Just recently, our small son began his kindergarten experience, getting used to it at first, just for two or three hours each morning. This schedule allowed me to go every weekday morning to a cafe nearby and try to focus on writing. Accidentally, this forced schedule also came at a…

Retro Writing 14 – Traveler at last.

Finally, the time came to test and review one of the devices that made me interested in dedicated writing solutions in the first place - the Freewrite Traveler! A few years ago, the original device made by Astrohaus - the Hemmingwrite (later renamed to Freewrite, Smart Typewriter) piqued my interest. It launched as a Kickstarter project in 2014 and then was developed further into one of the few distraction-free writing modern products you can currently buy. That device looks and feels more like a bulky typewriter that you would like to place on your desk and never move, so I was more interested in their second design - the portable Traveler.

Retro Writing 13 – the Pomera DM30

In one of the first articles of this series - exploring various weird and retro writing devices - I mentioned the Pomera DM30 as may go to distraction-free mobile word processor. Even though this device is not exactly retro - it was made as recently as 2018 - it is unique and worth further delving…

Retro Writing 12 – The Panaword

In my wanderings through machines that can be used as dedicated, retro-distraction-free writing devices, I had already gone into a few quite forgotten places. I'm fascinated by machines that I was not able to try because, in their hay day, I was just a kid with for whom his AMIGA 500 was everything. This time,…

Retro writing 11 – Casio HW-300JS

The device I'm trying to use in this part of this retro writing series of articles is genuinely unique. I knew I had to try it out as soon as I saw it on the Japanese second-hand goods website I usually frequent. A small format, portable, personal word processor with a built-in printer! This should…

Retro Writing 10 – AlphaSmart DANA

First, let me explain really quick what an AlphaSmart is. If you, like me, search around the internet for distraction-free writing devices, you will surely find the long line of AlphaSmart word-processing keyboards made by a USA-based company between 1993 and 2007. These were conceptually very simple – a keyboard with a small LCD that…

Retro Writing 09 – printing on the go.

Even though the NEC Mobilegear has some downsides, it's still my favorite go-to mobile writing device mainly because of its compatibility with file formats and just how dully usable the Windows CE system is. Thus, I was delighted to spot online a cute portable printer that can be used with Windows CE 3.0 and wirelessly…

Retro Writing 08 – Psion 3mx

I have been interested in the Psion family of mobile computers for quite some time already. I even imported the most famous one, the Psion 5mx, all the way from England to test how well it fared as a distraction-free writing device, explore it and write an article about it. Even though I ended up selling…

Retro writing 07 – the DevTerm

In my quest for interesting writing devices, I often turn to retro PDAs and old computers just because I finally can lay my hands on devices that, as a kid, I could only marvel at in computer magazines. I also think it's good to breathe new life into obsolete and unused machines so we can…

Retro writing 06 – HP palmtops

One of the things that inspired me to look at old computers as cool and exciting tools for writing texts was Neil Gaiman typing one of his novels on an old Atari Portfolio Palmtop. However, the second one was Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin admitting to still using a DOS program Word Star 4.0 to write his…