Tom Hanks Seeks iTunes Stardom With Typewriter App
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With a brand-new typewriter app, Oscar-winner Tom Hanks marks the latest celebrity to leap from the silver screen into the world of tech.
, which launched yesterday exclusively for the iPad, seeks to “recreate the experience of a manual typewriter” — complete with look, feel and sound.
As a vintage-typewriter obsessive boasting a collection that once numbered 200, Hanks USA Today that the machines inspire a clarity of mind when he’s writing letters to friends or notating scripts.
“I find it’s like music that spurs along the creative urge,” he to his nearly 9 million followers yesterday. “Bang bang clack-clack-clack puckapuckapuckapucka…”
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The app was helmed by Kentucky-based tech firm Hitcents — whose other notable creations include and — in collaboration with Hanks’ management, Creative Artists Agency.
Users can email, print and share documents written via Hanx. A selection of three total keyboards is available, each of which produces a slightly different font. While the basic typewriter is free, subsequent models cost $2.99.
Hanx Writer arrives on the heels of another celebrity-made app store sensation, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, which analysts claim is on track to garner $200 million in its first year.
Rather than aiming for big bucks, however, Hanks told USA Today that the project stems from his abiding love of a bygone gadget. “Hanx Writer is just my little gift to the future Luddite hipsters of the world,” he said.
Related: Laugh All You Want: Sales of Kim Kardashian’s Much-Mocked App Are Astronomic
With a brand-new typewriter app, Oscar-winner Tom Hanks marks the latest celebrity to leap from the silver screen into the world of tech.
, which launched yesterday exclusively for the iPad, seeks to “recreate the experience of a manual typewriter” — complete with look, feel and sound.
As a vintage-typewriter obsessive boasting a collection that once numbered 200, Hanks USA Today that the machines inspire a clarity of mind when he’s writing letters to friends or notating scripts.
