📝Buy a Smart Typewriter, Unplug with Wisephone, and Zero Trace

The not so smart phone

Sep 6, 2021

Hellooooooo!

I’ve got some really awesome news for you this week. The Land of Random is NOW 1,000 subscribers strong. We’ve finally hot the big 1k!

It’s been a really long journey . . . and I’m so excited that we’re at the next step. From 1K to 10K here we come!

Thank you so much for reading along every week, sending me emails, and talking to me on Twitter. I’m so happy you join me on this wild ride every Monday. :)

To celebrate this huge milestone - I’m giving away a Steam Key to the fantastic Star Wars game Knights of the Old Republic II AND all 261 Seikomart releases on Bandcamp. That’s 261 albums of Vaporwave and all kinds of fun music.

Here’s just ONE of the epic albums. Top Tier Vibes.

Well, what are you waiting for? Tell all your friends about The Land of Random.

Enter the contest now!

Giveaway!

Maybe it has something to do with the Holiday season coming soon, but I seem to be up to my internet eyeballs in cool products. I do apologize, but all of today’s main topics are just that. 🤣🤣

Well, shall we hop on into today’s topics?

📝Buy a Smart Typewriter

Months ago we discussed the last remnants of the traditional typewriter industry. Today - we’ll discuss its future.

There’s a really cool company called Freewrite that’s bringing typewriters back with a techy twist.

For content that’s coming straight out of your noggin, the fewer distractions - the better. Occasionally, I write fiction - and I tend to get very distracted. Heck - I’ve got two books that I really need to finish.

Something like this would be perfect for going to a park or a coffee shop. Just imagine it . . . the idea of sipping a coffee, the clickity clack of the keyboard, and the coffee shop music/noise in the background. A few hours of distraction free writing. Nods and jealous looks for elder Hipsters. Yeah i’m cool too.

Ok . . . back to reality. Here’s a picture of the main Freewrite.

Just look at those retro vibes. It has a bright e-ink screen, weeks of battery life, and connects to Wifi so you can backup your documents to Google Drive and Dropbox.

There’s even a travel version - and it’s the only one in stock at the moment - sadly.

This looks pretty nifty too. Great for some compact writing when you don’t want to lug around the other version.

Go check out Freewrite at the link!

Get Freewrite

📱Unplug with Wisephone

Finally, a Smartphone without apps that is ALSO minimalist. The Techless Wisephone feels like Blloc and Boringphone had a baby.

Here’s their copy

Wisephone is for intentional people who want to live life to the fullest. The perfect first phone for sophisticated kids, a trustworthy tool for digital minimalists, and a respite from the noble fight against addiction. It’s sophisticated and simple, with everyday tools, including calling, texting, maps, and a camera. More importantly, Wisephone has no app store, no social media, and no access to addictive media. (Source)

It’s a smartphone - but without the thousands of distracting addictive apps that eat our time . . . . It’s for people who are sick and tired of that grind. Heck, i’ve had smartphones for almost 10 years and I’m getting tired too.

Just look at this beautiful minimalism. The tech message UI is as clean as it gets. Texting would be fun again on this haha.

Here’s the feature list

Phone
Texting (SMS + Group Text)
Calculator
Timezone
Camera
Maps
Stopwatch

That’s it. It’s like the smartphone verison of the Light phone - except it doesn’t have music. That’s honestly the one downside in my opinion. At least a basic mp3 player would be useful - or a stripped down Spotify/Bandcamp/Soundcloud.

Otherwise, I’d be tempted to use this phone as my daily driver when I want to have a tech detox. Of course you could pair it with a Mighty music player to make up the difference - and that could work just fine!

Check it out at the link.

Wisephone

🐱‍💻Zero Trace Pen

Once in a while, I find a privacy product that’s really cool - like the USB Kill device that you can use to instantly kill your computer.

The Zero Trace Pen is a pen shaped usb drive that you can hook up to your laptop

What Is The Zero Trace Pen?
Everything you do on the Internet goes through your ISP (aka Internet Service Provider), this includes anything you do outside of the Tor browser as well. Our Zero Trace Pen encrypts and anonymizes your entire connection by passing it through 3 different relays just like the Tor Browser. However, encryption happens at the operating system level. This means, you can browse applications and the internet completely anonymous without worrying about being tracked.

Illustration of the relays.

Sound pretty cool, right? The drive is also set up with a double kill switch too - so it starts deleting everything the moment you unplug *rip* out your usb.

It also contains a bunch of really useful apps - like the Electrum BTC wallet, Tor browser, Libreoffice, and many others.

Usually, these sorts of security devices look too complicated to use for the average consumer - or - they take too much time to learn. This certainly looks easier to use - and it will definitely provide more privacy than that “free VPN.”

Go check it out at the link!

Zero Trace

🐙The Land of Random

Those sweet sweet links of randomness

Windows 11 in React

Enjoy some Windows 11 vibes right there in your browser. There’s even a few games!

Windows 11

Sick Samsung Prototypes

I imagine that one of these will be the next Galaxy Fold. I WANT the super foldy tablet phone.

It folds!

Generative Drawing Tool

Ooooooooooooh. Pretty Spirals

So pretty

Your 8 Bit Homepage

Set this beautiful 8 bit scenery as your internet homepage. So cool!

Peaceful Vibes

Focusli

A very minimalist Lofi (and other music) radio player. It’s awesome!

The beats

Vaporwave Sax Doggo

The title says it all . . .

Syne Display

This really nifty looking still-being-developed product is essentially a live photo screen - but for album covers from music streaming services. Just what I wanted for a music setup. I’d love to have this on the wall by my desk!

Syne