Micro Journal: Distraction-Free Writing Device
10 comments
·February 24, 2025throwanem
kstrauser
Lovely! I envy your ability to handwrite my thoughts as quickly as I can type them.
kstrauser
I bought a Freewrite Alpha last summer and which I'd gotten something like this instead. The Alpha's great in many ways, but has just enough aggravation that it makes me resent the thing a little:
* I have a model without a backlight, and the screen's all but invisible unless you're under a light. Wake up and think of something you want to write? Either turn on the lights, or hope it actually turned on when you hit the power button and that you're not typing on a powered-off device.
* Why, oh why, can it only remember 1 single Wi-Fi password? I write most of the time from home, but sometimes I like to go to a nearby coffee shop. If I connect it to the coffee shop's Wi-Fi, I have to manually re-enter my home password when I get back. I don't need it to remember thousands of networks, but maybe just the 3 or more most recent ones would cover the above cases, plus tethering to my phone.
I joined the BYOK[0] Kickstarter last year. I hope it turns into the device I hoped the Alpha would be.
[0] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/byok/byok-the-ultimate-...
joseda-hg
Not really a fix, but I encounter this regularly (Usually with my e reader), I just named my Phone's hotspot the same as my home network (Same password too) and connect the phone to the public WiFi
It has other problems (Like security, if you're connecting other devices), but it makes it simple enough
Edit: Maybe make it the same SSID as a guest network, that way you avoid your other devices thinking it's a trusted network
kstrauser
That's an option, for sure. I've thought about doing exactly that, but stopped because of the security issues. And that doesn't help with the coffee shop / hotel / office issues, unless I want to use tethering 100% of the time I'm outside the house, which I don't.
smarx007
Pen and paper, thank me later.
flakiness
This reminded me of "Pomera" from Kingjim: https://getpomera.com/ I tried it a long time ago but it didn't stick. Still glad to see a similar concept coming back here. It's just cool.
What I like in this Micro Journal is the real keyboard though. The Pomera keyboard was very cheap (for portability.)
smartmic
Check out the Zerowriter Ink. Similar features/hardware but a slightly different form factor. Seems like a pretty attractive niche for startups.
carelyair
What software is used for this?
zokier
depends on the edition
https://github.com/unkyulee/micro-journal/tree/main/micro-jo...
I have a distraction-free writing device. It's called a notebook and it cost eight dollars.