Note: Tom Hanks speaks about the Hanx Writer on NPR — click here.
I have to admit, straight off, I don’t type much on my iPad. Even with a bluetooth keyboard, I don’t find the iPad great for writing. Hanx Writer, an app created by actor Tom Hanks, though, might just get me going.
Writes, er, types Hanks on Twitter: “I wanted the sound of typing if nothing else… cause I find it’s like music that spurs along the creative urge. Bang bang clack-clack-clack puckapuckapuckapucka…” (see story on NBC News).
My verdict? Darn impressive. The sounds are truly authentic, like music to my ears. The basic app is free, so check it out for yourself. Upgrading to the paid version adds two more machines.
Note: Sound kicks in about 7 seconds into video.
Screenshots:
© 2014, Mark Adams. All rights reserved.
A typecast screencast? what’ll they think of next? 😀
Great demo, thanks!
I downloaded the app and tried it out, and find it very fun. Yea, having to shift to get to the numerical keyboard is a pain, and it doesn’t shift back. In this respect I really like iAWriter’s virtual keyboard better than this one or the standard iOS keyboard, as it adds an extra row of keys.
But, hey, it’s a manual typewriter simulation and that’s fine. I did find out that the touch-screen enabled highlight, copy and paste functions still work, along with suggestions for spelling corrections, so this does make it easier to edit text than I originally thought.
It exports the document as a PDF file, so that might be a limitation for some people. I’m not sure if Blogger takes PDF files; if so, that would be a cool way to “virtually” typecast.
Shall we call this “Hanx-casting?”
Thanks for posting. Looks great!