The Rymek retro mechanical keyboard is a typewriter with modern smarts for your iPad and PC

Modern writers might find paper inflexible, but digital technology can be characterless and dull. If you want to stick with a PC or iPad, yet channel your inner Hunter S. Thompson while smashing out words, Rymek (from $99) will this June hurl you back to the halcyon days of the classic typewriter. As you hammer away, its saddle-shaped keys make all the right noises (and possibly enemies of anyone within earshot), but this retro keyboard isn’t entirely rooted in the past. You can connect up to four devices, balance an iPad in its ‘paper tray’, and pleasingly use the platen knob and carriage return handle to, respectively, adjust volume and switch between wired/wireless modes. For late-night sessions, you even get backlit keys – something Stuff imagines Thompson only got through his decidedly ‘unique’ diet.

Craig Grannell Contributor

About

I’m a regular contributor to Stuff magazine and Stuff.tv, covering apps, games, Apple kit, Android, Lego, retro gaming and other interesting oddities. I also pen opinion pieces when the editor lets me, getting all serious about accessibility and predicting when sentient AI smart cookware will take over the world, in a terrifying mix of Bake Off and Terminator.

Areas of expertise

Mobile apps and games, Macs, iOS and tvOS devices, Android, retro games, crowdfunding, design, how to fight off an enraged smart saucepan with a massive stick.