Oh god, they reinvented the electronic typewriter.
This seems more similar to word processors prior to PCs taking over that functionality.
that’s the exact same thing.
I mean, backing their heyday, word processors were considered a pretty solid upgrade over an electronic typewriter, with a price tag to reflect that.
And it doesn’t even make Ding! on carriage return.
they call it a typewriter in the first sentence of the article
Imagine having a word processor without letters on the keys.
(Only partially kidding)
LOL at least you can get your own fancy keycap set 😅 I wonder if the launch versions will offer labels
That’s not an uncommon thing, actually. One of the most famous mechanical keyboards, the Das Keyboard, was by default glyph-less.
Amd o stoll jsve pne tp thos dau!
Well duh, why would I want Egyptian hieroglyphs on my keyboard??? /s
Don’t even have to imagine. IBM made those into the early 90s. My family had one
I thought the keys were E-ink too, so you can show any letter, image or disable them. I kinda wish I had such a keyboard with programmable E-ink; I mean my entire keyboard, not a fancy extra thing.
I guess letters are a distraction.
Colors are also distraction!
Wow, that is dumb.
Not if you already don’t look at the keyboard while typing, plus you use multiple layouts
I mean, I generally don’t, but I still find myself having to look sometimes.
With this, you couldn’t even if you wanted to.
None of my keyboards do and I don’t use qwerty so it’s also funny when someone else tries to use my PC and fails miserably
So like the Radio Shack TRS-80 “Trash 80” Model 100 from 1983… https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mobile-computing/18/316/1684
Over $1200 in today’s dollars!
And very not foss
It’s an alternate to Astrohaus’s Freewrite, should be a bit more competitively priced! Source code isn’t available yet but it’s running an ESP32 so that’s pretty cool (the original version used a raspi zero)
I can’t expect this will cost less than 400 bucks.
$200!
Interesting but so ugly
The black keyboard option on the crowdsupply page is a lot less ugly imo: https://www.crowdsupply.com/zerowriter/zerowriter-ink
Right
This looks great. I was thinking about buying an Android ebook reader and a bluetooth keyboard in order to cobble together something like this for myself. But if this is less than the cost of an ebook reader by itself, that’s even better.
This is basically a modern AlphaSmart. Looks like they took some inspiration from that, too!
It is! AlphaSmart went under a while ago so the only models available are used. Astrohaus made their own version too, but it’s about as expensive ad their other products so I’m looking forward to this.
Wasn’t the point of these low power computers to be cheap?
Somebody should really sweep in and snag that market position by not actually overcharging for it!
In this case, I think “no distractions” is the goal. It’s running on an ESP32 microcontroller, not even a full-blown SBC computer like a Raspberry Pi. It’s probably a good choice for such a device but I also don’t feel terribly blown away by the price. But, thinking about it, it is a mechanical keyboard with a display that runs about $90, so, not an unfair price, but, certainly not low-cost.
Compared to the AlphaSmart? Their last model launched at over $400 if you adjust for inflation, the only reason they’re cheap now is that schools bought them en masse to teach typing. Niche writing tools are unfortunately expensive unless economies of scale get involved
I mean I seem to remember whole ass netbooks going for $50-80 a few years back.
Oh I think those are still around, usually chromebooks. As long as you set your expectations to the price point they can work,but that’s not really who this is targeted for
Zerowriter Ink should get up to a week of battery life
ESP strikes again…
I’d been looking into building something like this out of a Raspberry Pi, very cool that this is open source.
I do think a split keyboard design would serve a slate like this a bit better though.
I built my own before getting a freewrite traveler, so it’s nice to see people making them easier for others!
I think I would want to be able to adjust the viewing angle of the screen. I imagine you would want to set it up in a way that is similar to a mechanic typewriter.
That’s why I like my Traveler! But the eink screen looks great at an angle so it’s not usually much of a problem once you get used to it.
