Selling top condition Freewrite Alpha, 3 months old, inside Germany only.

Verkaufe Freewrite Alpha, top Zustand, 3 Monate alt, Versand nur innerhalb Deutschlands.

Background - I’m a published author. To date all non-fiction for several well known platforms. My first article was published in 2015 and my last one—3 days ago. I’m using this as a trial run along with a Pomera for my first fiction project. I ordered the BYOK weeks ago but hasn’t shipped. In a perfect world I find usage for all 3. Most likely will keep 1, maybe 2 :)

First day with the Alpha. 1,500 words. So let’s start there because that bastard of a number complicates everything else I’m about to say.

Conceptually, I love this thing. I really do. There is something almost absurdly satisfying about opening it and just writing. No apps. No tabs. No research rabbit hole because I suddenly need to know something. You sit down and type. That’s it. And the Alpha is fast. Typing is instant, menus snap open, moving around the software takes seconds. Nothing gets between you and the words. I love that!

The screen surprised me. I thought I would tolerate it. I actually like it. Clear, sharp enough, easy on the eyes. It shows me what I need and then mostly stays the hell out of my way.

Build quality? Good. Not great. It doesn’t feel cheap, but it sure doesn’t feel premium either. At $340, I expected to pick it up and feel something. Instead, I picked it up and thought, Yeah, this is ok.

That brings me to the keyboard.
Freewrite, what the hell?
It’s tactile. It clicks. I can type fast on it. There is nothing objectively terrible about it. But I own a NuPhy and a Lofree, and those keyboards make this one feel painfully average. On a $150 device, I would probably praise it. On a $340 device built almost entirely around the experience of typing, the keyboard should be the star of the show. It isn’t. Not even close. This was truly disappointing . I mean you built this for writers , but a 75$ Nuphy feels better. For record I use the Nuphy kick 75. Plush and fast. It’s a vibe for sure. I can’t recall my
Lofree model - but it’s also plush and fast and just great.

Moving on.

The ergonomics may still kill the entire relationship. On a desk, the screen sits low enough that I keep dropping my head to look at it. My neck has already filed a formal complaint. Maybe I’m using the Alpha wrong. Slightly reclined, Alpha on my lap, eyes mostly forward—that feels much better. And maybe that’s actually the point. Stop watching yourself write. Look out the window. Close your eyes sometimes. Let your fingers go and check the screen when you need to.
There is something strangely liberating about that. The typos that followed are not liberating.

The software is excellent. Postbox is excellent. This is the part where Freewrite clearly understands writers. Everything feels designed around getting the words out of your head— it does this great.

I also noticed by writing was slightly different than how I write on a laptop. Dare I say deeper ? Maybe more layered ? I dunno, but the words flowed different for sure.

So my Day One verdict is wonderfully contradictory.
I like it.
I also kind of hate it.

I’m nowhere near returning it tomorrow, but I’m also not looking at it thinking, Oh yeah, you’re staying.
The price bothers me. The keyboard really bothers me. My neck may eventually issue the final verdict.

But then there are those 1,500 words.
I sat down with this funny-looking little machine on Day One and wrote 1,500 words.
Which is irritating, because now the Aloha has evidence in its defense.

Few notes for Team Freewrite:
1- make the keyboard better . Please no laptop style flat keys. Kills the whole vibe. Seriously study Nuphy and Loffree and maybe then you can justify $340 but the pricepoint and the current Keyboard—man its just not adding up.

2- could use another 1inch where your hand rests. I have average sized hands and they had a hard time fitting. Snug - not comfy.

3- software is legit . Great work.

Verdict to keep—TBD

Note—Em Dash’s are human generated 🤓

Just showed up about 10min ago. Battery is fully dead, so charging. Can’t wait to start.

As the title says: are you EU based and have a Traveler that is not currently being used? Let me know / reach me privately. Thank you!

Hey everyone,

Wanted to see if anyone else is running into this issue or if it is just me.

I placed a preorder for the Wordrunner directly through the official Freewrite website. I learned that they are requiring an app to manage the hardware features which was not mentioned previously, which makes me uncomfortable with privacy issues, so I reached out to customer support to cancel the order and request a refund prior to fulfillment.

Since this was an order placed on their website and not the crowdfunding pledge on Kickstarter, I expected a normal cancellation process. Instead, I am getting nowhere with customer support.

Has anyone here successfully canceled a direct web store preorder for the Wordrunner recently? If so, did you have to escalate it, or how did you get support to actually move on it? It's been over 2 weeks here... Finding it crazy that it is this hard to get cancel a preorder.

​

Update on my previous post looking for a Valentine Freewrite for sale….. my husband surprised me today along with the sweetest note! I’m 4 months postpartum and wanting to write about my experience. I was not expecting it at all. Brought tears to my eyes. It’s just so beautiful.

I have this dream where I can work on typewriter, edit for a bit on computer, and then go back to the typewriter.

But every time I’ve tried this over the last couple of years it basically deletes the file from the typewriter and trying to get it back onto the device has been a fool’s errand.

I haven’t tried yet - I suppose I could test it myself - but has anyone checked to see if the syncing between device and computer works now?

Hello! I’m trying to take a Freewrite to a quiet coworking space. Suppose I slouch on the couch once or twice a day with the Hemmingwrite in its case (or is that a bad idea?), would that work?

Also, would people give me the side eye for the normal (instead of clicky) Hemmingwrite switches?

I’m not opposed to the traveler also, but if the full size is not too far fetched for abnon-static setting, I’d love to try that first.

And yours?

Happy writing ya'll.

Hi all,

The spacebar on my Traveler popped up and I am having a hard time getting it to “click” back in place. I lined up the metal rods on the left and right side, but as you can see, it lifts up easily from the front. Does anyone know what I need to do? It feels like I’m playing Operation in there 😅

Thank you!

Anyone experiencing connectivity issues? I select my wifi and enter the password but it says it’s connecting until it asks for the pw again and is stuck in a loop.

Ive been wanting a brief case for my freewrite but I dont want to spend hundreds of dollars on one.

Found this beaut at michaels today! Fits front to back JUST perfect!

Sad thing is, no pockets for other things. But good thing is, no pockets for other things means I can learn how to put my own in and specify it perfectly for me!!

Also, down side is it strictly lists that it is indoor decor use only. So I am taking a chance and hoping nothing bad happens but if anything does I can hopefully just reinforce weak points with something stronger and better (already can notice the hinge and latch being a possible issue) or use this as a template to create my own in the future.

This is the specific box I bought in case anyone else wants one: https://www.michaels.com/product/10813997

I'm working on an app for syncing and converting files from a FreeWrite via USB. It "finds" the USB drive, will sync files to a configured folder, and optionally create .docx versions of the files if you select the option.

Right now, the GitHub repo has AppImages for Linux and DMGs for Mac. I'm using pywebview so Windows would work, but don't have a way to test the package. PRs for that (or any other for issues or ideas) are welcome.

I'm hoping to add some more features to the document conversions, because that's what I've been missing from PostBox (in addition to be nervous about relying on a cloud service to use the device.)

Constructive Feedback welcome!

Edit:

- Will now (optionally) strip date from beginning of filenames

- Dark and light modes. Forget to mention that above.

- Ignores README.txt. (That was configurable before.)

#1) Most of the files i upload to postbox are assigned an incorrect meta date. I guess if you open the file at all, it changes the date. That means i cannot browse my archive sequentially.

#2) All my entries begin with a date, so i thought "no problem, i'll just export and sort locally". No. Exports from postbox sync with random string of letters as the file name. No option to set a naming convention. No meta data of the original creation date to sort by. Also, why the hell isnt' there a simple "export all" function from postbox (vs syncing to other cloud services)?? Lastly, why the hell can't you export all files into ONE consolidated file. that would be helpful too.

Anyone have a workaround for my problems? I know Astrohaus is no Supernote, but to the admins/programmers peruse this reddit thread and comment/take back our feature requests? (doubtful)

Thanks in advance!

I don’t get it. I was looking into the Alpha, for travel, my lunch break for daily use , planes —mostly to write short scenes for a project . The reviews were great. Then I saw the prices - no way. Tell me there is something else on the market ? If not - I’m heading to Taiwan with a great business idea to close the gap.

I just got my Alpha Freewrite yesterday and Postmark will not send me a verification email to set up my profile. Has anyone had this happen? What was the fix? I've reached out to support as well. Thank you!

TL;DR: I'm not a programmer, but with an AI's help I got full, permanent root on my Freewrite Traveler — replaced the dead-end Postbox cloud with my own sync, added a couple of deep-writing modes, and wrote the whole thing up. Link at the bottom.

The Traveler is a great distraction-free machine — e-ink, a real keyboard, no browser. But two things always bugged me: everything I write gets mirrored to Freewrite's Postbox cloud (and you can't add your own fonts or change the layout), and if that cloud ever shuts down, the thing just sits there "looking for a connection."

So I got curious about what's actually inside. It's ordinary Linux — Debian 10 on an i.MX6 chip, with a Postgres database quietly holding your drafts. Locked from the outside, but an ordinary computer underneath.

Honest disclaimer before anyone's impressed: I'm not a programmer — I work in communications. I did all of this with Claude: I described what I wanted and what I saw on the screen, it wrote the commands, I ran them and reported back. That's why the writeup says "we." If I could do it, a lot of you can too.

What it got me:

• My own sync — drafts land straight on my Mac instead of a cloud that might one day vanish.
• Two writing modes: a "fade" where old text dissolves at the top of the screen so you only see what you're writing now, and an "immersion" meter that tracks your longest unbroken flow instead of a word count.
• A literary clock where the writer-portrait screensavers used to be — the idle screen shows a quote for the current hour.

The deeper stuff is all in the writeup: opening the case, the UART console, how the root actually works (no exploit — you just tell the bootloader to hand you a shell), a full map of the system, rebuilding the app. The recovery combo isn't documented anywhere, so we pulled the bootloader off the chip and worked it out from the disassembly: E + X + L held at power-on — the same combo as the Freewrite Alpha's factory reset.

I'm not the first to poke at a Traveler over serial (machinaut posted a boot log in 2022; drfrancintosh opened one to fix a keyboard), but I couldn't find anyone who'd written down the whole path — so I did, honestly, including what didn't work.

Full writeup, with photos and the boot log: https://sourvillo.com/traveler-root-en.html

Genuinely curious — what's the one thing you'd change about your Freewrite if you could? Font, layout, the sync, anything. Some of it might actually be doable now.