The News Minute | August 21, 2014 | 04:00 pm IST
A typewriter app aptly titled Hanx Writer backed by actor Tom Hanks has topped iTunes store charts, ranking No. 1 in both the Productivity, as well as the Overall category.
Launched just last week by the actor, the app aims to recreate the magic of typing on a typewriter, along with the “ease and spread” of the iPad.
In an interview with Apple’s @AppStore Twitter account while promoting the app, Hanks said ““I wanted to have the sensation of an old manual typewriter – 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… I wanted the ‘report’ of each letter, each line.”
( Image Courtesy: Tech Crunch )
While its basic version is free, the app provides additional options to buy three typewriter models, for users to play around with sound, color, text and styles. Even though it provides the look and feel of a normal typewriter on the iPad, it includes modern features like a delete key, along with options to mail, print and share documents once done.
In his opinion piece for the New York Times, Hanks had written: Everything you type on a typewriter sounds grand, the words forming in mini-explosions of SHOOK SHOOK SHOOK. A thank-you note resonates with the same heft as a literary masterpiece.
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In addition to sound, there is the sheer physical pleasure of typing; it feels just as good as it sounds, the muscles in your hands control the volume and cadence of the aural assault so that the room echoes with the staccato beat of your synapses.
( Image courtesy: Tech Crunch )
Hanks, however, agrees that the app is not suitable for typing a term paper or a legal brief, but it could add some variety to an otherwise banal-looking love letter or a journal entry devoid of any distinctness.
Photo credit : http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/18/tom-hanks-typewriter-app-shoots-to-the-top-of-the-app-store/