Tom Hanks Releases Hanx Writer, His ‘Little Gift To The Future Luddite Hipsters’


Oscar winner Tom Hanks is an avid lover of typewriters. And he wants to share his love with the world via a new app he just released.

According to a report from USA Today, Hanks’ app is called the Hanx Writer, and it can turn a person’s iPad into an old-school typewriter. It even has the sounds of metal hitting paper, the ding indicating when the end of a line has been reached, and the sound it makes when it starts a new line. Unfortunately, Android users are unable to download it at the moment.

Tom Hanks’ app is free of charge through Apple’s App Store, but those who are looking to purchase additional fonts or sounds will pay $2.99 for each one.

Hanks said this is more for people “searching for a more personalized experience when writing on an iPad.”

“There’s also the opportunity here to take your iPad to a coffee house and be really obnoxious with all the clickety-clacking,” he jokingly added.

Tom Hanks said he uses typewriters daily and, at one point, he owned more than 200. Hanks’ main uses of the old typing machine include making editing comments on screenplays and writing notes to friends.

In a press release, via UPI, Hanks mentioned that with his new app, people will “no longer” have to use “modern luxuries, like the DELETE key.”

“With Hanx Writer, you’ll hear the rhythm of your work with SHOOK SHOOK or FITT-FITT,” the statement read.

But Tom Hanks did note that his app does allow people to have the option for a delete key, as well as auto correct. And if they’re really proud of their work, people will be able to forward it to their friends.

Stuart Westphal, the man who designed Hanx Writer, said Tom Hanks didn’t want to make it “gimmicky.”

“He mainly said, ‘Don’t make it gimmicky,’ so it had to work with a Bluetooth keyboard, which is really where you get the full effect of seeing a blank white page slowly fill with black type,” Westphal said. “Tom wanted people to want to sit down and write a poem or screenplay with it.”

When asked if people might want to go back to the way of the typewriter, Hanks joked by saying Germany’s government were resorting back to using typewriters, “so they can’t be spied on by us.”

“But really, Hanx Writer is just my little gift to the future Luddite hipsters of the world,” he said.

In a related report from The Inquisitr, one of Tom Hanks’ most beloved characters, Forrest Gump, now has his own iOS app called Run Forrest Run. It’s an animated version of the scene in which Hanks’ character runs across the country just because he “wanted to do it.”

[Image via Apple ‘N’ Apps]

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