Introducing Typerighter.com – The Minimalist Writing on All Your Devices

“the perfect web based writing tool.” – Patrick Rhone

On any given day, I’ll be interacting with 4-6 different internet-enabled devices (multiple laptops, a handheld, a couple of tablets) the only quality they share is a decent browser and I wanted a fast, simple way to update my writing across all of them.

All the existing apps I found were filled with distractions, didn’t work across all devices, required learning a wonky syntax, didn’t deal well with long form text, or some combination of thereof.

So, I built typerighter.com

Typerighter.com recreates the simplicity and unbiased opportunity of a blank sheet of paper.

Like a blank sheet of paper – typerighter.com has one feature – Save.

It works brilliantly on mobile devices like the iPad, iPhone, and even the HP TouchPad. There’s nothing to install, nothing to download, and nothing between you and your writing.

Bottoms up product management

“Much of what made Twitter useful in the first place – Hashtags, @user and many other little Twitter specific conventions are hacks that were first adopted by users because Twitter didn’t support several key functions like groups or addressing a note to a specific user. Twitter has made the colossal mistake of trying to integrate these workarounds into the base DNA of their service.” – Ross Rader

Boyd’s Annual Opt Out

“While I’m away, my lovely procmail file (aka “filtering software”) will direct all of my email to /dev/null (aka “the permanent trash”). I will not be reachable. The only person that I stay in contact with while I’m gone is my mother because it’s just too cruel to my mom to disappear entirely. Twitter and my blog will also loudly proclaim my MIA-ness. But the bigger issue is that I will return to a zero-inbox. Nothing sent to me during my email sabbatical will survive. All senders will receive a lovely bounce message saying that their message” – Dana Boyd

“I do feel guilty not personally responding to these people to say that I’m unavailable but that’s precisely the point… My boss gets it; my collaborators get it; my friends get it. And they like me a lot better when I’ve taken a vacation recently.” – Dana Boyd, How to Take an Email Sabbatical

Amazon Fire – First Impressions

tl;dr – Yes, this is The Holiday Gift of 2011.

For all the hype – this is easily the best tablet I’ve played with in a decade. From the unboxing experience (less than 5 minutes from delivery to browsing my ebook library) to getting comfortable and settling in.

Amazon has:

  • minimized all the parts of Android that annoy me (back button, overall cheap feel),
  • brought in all the parts of WebOS that I like (get me to my stuff, integrate the web throughout the OS),
  • brought over all the parts of about Kindle I love (remember where I was, stay out of my way)
  • and made it easy to sideload everything – ebooks, photos, music, video, address book – via USB.

At 7″, the Fire is terribly comfortable to hold in one hand and it makes tablet computers (iPad & TouchPad) seem comically large. Like the larger tablets – this is a great size to socialize around (unlike laptops or handhelds).

Unlike the iPad – I can easily see taking the Fire everywhere. Hell – I can see buying two – one that stays in the house and one that’s mounted in the car.

Oh, and there’s the bit about it having a fantastic web browser (that even makes it easy to bookmark) and WiFi.

Oh – and the revenue model is clear (it’s an extension of Amazon’s store, duh).