Your days of typing into a soulless word processor are at an end now that Tom Hanks has brought the typewriter into the 21st century with his Hanx Writer app to the iPad.

I thought I was the only one that missed the feel of my old IBM Selectric typewriter with the golf ball typing element. There was absolutely no substitute for the feedback you received when pressing a key and feeling the golf ball spin and hammer the correct letter into your piece of paper. The sound, vibration, and feedback was inexplicable and unequaled in the computer age. The metal keyboard for the original IBM PC is the only thing that came close.

Apparently, actor Tom Hanks feels the same way and has never given up on traditional typewriters.  His typewriter collection is reported to exceed 200 of the wonderful machines. Hanks’ uses typewriters daily to write screenplays and type notes to friends and colleagues. He commissioned app designer Stuart Wesftphal of Hitcents to create an app that faithfully brings the thwack sound of metal stamping paper and the ding-clunk-fripp of reaching the end of one line and starting a new one. You start with the Hanx Prime Select and can do in-app purchases of the Hanx 707 or Golden Touch.

This app isn’t a gimmicky nostalgic toy. It really works and I’m hoping it will bring an end to the current silence found in coffee shops. I’m going to try it for the next chapter of the novel I’m working on. Looking forward to annoying people around me with the wonderful clickity-clack that drove some of the greatest works of literature. Yes, that’s Mr. Hemingway typing on his iPad next to you while drinking a Mocha.

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