• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, October 3, 2018

The hard thing about writing is that there is always something -- anything! -- to do instead. And the thing about the Internet is that a laptop can provide a lifetime’s worth of other things to check out.

The new Traveler laptop tries to take care of that problem by eliminating almost everything a computer can do, replacing it with a device that its makers call a  “distraction-free writing tool,” according to a promotional video.

In the one day that Astrohaus, its manufacturer, has been asking for funding on Indiegogo,  the effort has raised $197,739, about four times more than requested.

Early bird buyers via Indiegogo will get it for $319. It will cost $600 when the first ones are shipped some time next summer.

By some accounts, it takes 25 minutes to get back to what you were doing after being distracted. You can Google that and we’ll see you back here in about a half hour.

Cutting through that noise is why the Traveler exists.

In 2015, Astrohaus created a similar product called Freewrite that some enthusiasts called “the ultimate word processor.”

The Traveler is smaller than a laptop and weighs less than two pounds (the Freewrite weighs twice as much). And the specs say its battery life is four weeks, based on being used an hour a day.

It functions as a sort of electronic notebook, with some of the limitations of that last-century device: though “you can move around within your document via arrow keys” and change and correct copy, there is no spell check, copy and paste, or formatting,  according to the promotional literature.

The Freewrite and the Traveler are aimed at writers, people working on a thesis or those just wanting to concentrate on something they’re writing in a world where it’s harder than ever to stay on track. 

“Every writer has a method to stay focused," co-founder Adam Leeb says. “Jonathan Franzen removed the wireless card from his Dell computer and blocked the Ethernet. Writers go on retreats to simplify their surroundings. And some of them still use a typewriter for this very reason.”

The Travelers use an e-paper display, called E Ink, that uses ambient light, making  it easier to use in direct sunlight. It looks more like ink-on-paper, like some Kindle displays.

Leeb finds  attitudes about these devices differ depending on age. “Young people are much more attuned to the fact that we are distracted. There’s no doubt about it,” he says.

And oddly enough, Leeb thinks “there’s no stigma for young people” to want a device that you just write on. But there is for older ones. “For people, say 45 or so, they used a typewriter and they’re pretty happy to move on. They remember they were heavy and slow and you had to change ribbons.”

Some contemporary authors advise writers to complete a first draft all the way through, and then edit later. That method is ideal for the Traveler. Its drafts are constantly saved to internal flash storage and, once connected to a WiFi network, automatically synced to cloud services including Dropbox, Evernote and Google Drive.