the keys of memory

Tom Hanks's I-Tunes-topping app that "replicates the aural and visual sensations of old-fashioned typing", written up in The Globe and Mail.  

Typerwriter fanatic Hanks, who's written screenplays on vintage machines, gives this account of the genesis of the project: “In the late 70s I bought a typewriter – portable enough for world travel and sturdy enough to survive decades of 10-fingered beatings. I’ve since acquired many more – each different in design, action and sound. Each one stamps into paper a permanent trail of imagination through keys, hammers, cloth and dye"

“Whenever you type, the sounds the typewriter makes make you feel like you’re composing something special” says  Clinton Mills of Hitcents, the creative agency that developed the app, of its putative appeal

But as typewriter collector David Hayes notes, even with its clackety sound effects and visual simulations, the app cannot replicate the action of the machine - the tactility and resistance of the keys - the vibrations of a chunky, clunky mechanical device sitting imposingly upon your desk