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Freewrite Firmware 2.0.3 Update: Improving Syncing & Squashing Bugs

April 17, 2024 | 4 min read

Today, we're releasing a firmware update for Traveler and Smart Typewriter, version 2.0.3, and a corresponding improvement on Postbox to further reduce the chances of unintentional draft loss.

The update polishes the syncing process on Smart Typewriter and Traveler so that your drafts are always safe and securely backed up.

There is one cardinal rule at Freewrite: Thou shalt not lose drafts.

The problem is that in some rare cases, despite our best engineering efforts and on-screen warnings, this has happened to some users.

In this update, we are releasing two features that should banish draft loss for good:

First, Smart Typewriter and Traveler will now always sync a draft before they archive or shred it. We made this change because sometimes users open drafts from Postbox in Sprinter and don't realize that this will remove the draft from their device, despite the on-screen warning. They then will write in the same draft on their device while offline (before the sync has removed the draft from their device) and expect it to sync when they reconnect. But when they connect to WiFi — "poof!" — the draft disappears and all the new content they wrote on the device may or may not have synced.

With the new firmware, we make sure to sync first, before removing the draft from the device. Therefore, everything you wrote while offline will still sync before being removed from your device. Then, if it was a mistake that you opened the draft in Sprinter, it is always possible to move that draft back down to the device via Postbox so you can pick up where you left off.

Additional Syncing to Prevent Unintentional Data Loss: Traveler and Smart Typewriter now automatically sync drafts before archiving or shredding to prevent unsynced updates to drafts being lost unintentionally.

Second,on Postbox, we will now surface a draft that has been recently synced from a device that was previously shredded and allow users 48 hours to restore that draft. We made this change because sometimes users shred a draft on Postbox (which removes the draft from the entire Freewrite ecosystem, including your device) and then, without realizing it, write in that same draft on their device while offline. Upon connecting to Wi-Fi, the draft disappears when Postbox tells the device to shred the draft, and all of its contents including any new updates are gone.

With the new firmware and changes to Postbox, the device will sync before it processes the shred job, and Postbox will recognize that there has been a new sync of a shredded draft. Instead of discarding this draft, it will show the user in Postbox that a new version of the shredded draft was synced and allow the user 48 hours to recover it on Postbox. This gives a window of time for users to restore shredded drafts in the rare case that they continued writing in a draft with a pending shred job on a device while offline. (See below for what the warning will look like.)

In summary:

Sync Before Shred: Postbox now syncs any changes made to a draft offline before executing a shred job to prevent unintentional data loss.
Display of Drafts Synced After Shredding: Postbox will now display drafts that have been synced from the device after they were shredded, recognizing updates made after shredding.
48-Hour Recovery Window: Users have 48 hours to restore a draft that was edited and synced after shredding in Postbox.
Prevention of Data Loss: This update aims to protect the contents of a draft that might be inadvertently edited offline after it's been marked for shredding, ensuring no work is lost.

New "red alert" in Postbox of shredded document that has been edited offline

Note on Alpha:A similar update for Alpha is in the development queue. As always, make sure to practice good document management by paying close attention to any on-screen instructions and using the "Shred" function only on documents you will never need to access again. (If in doubt, use the "Archive" function, which retains a copy in your Archive folder on Postbox.)

For a full list of version 2.0.3 new features, improvements, and fixes, visit the Release Notes page.

Updating Your Device

Postbox updates are available to everyone automatically, with no action on your part.

Firmware rolls out automatically and will be available on your Traveler or Smart Typewriter when powered down and connected to Wi-Fi.

To manually check for a firmware update:

Option 1: Press right [new] + right [shift] + F
Option 2: hold the power button down for 3 seconds (version 1.5.0 or later) and select "Firmware Update" in the device menu

If an update is available, your device will begin downloading the update immediately. To perform the manual check, your device must be running on firmware version 1.1.6 or higher.

For more detailed instructions, visit our support topics:

The Set Up

The 2024 study recruited 293 writers to write an eight-sentence “micro” story. The participants were split into three groups:

Writing by human brainpower only
The opportunity to get one AI-generated idea to inspire their writing
The opportunity to get up to five AI-generated ideas to inspire their writing

Then, 600 evaluators judged how creative these short stories were. The results confirmed a widely accepted idea but also offered a few surprising findings.

Prompts from AI Can Jumpstart the Creative Process

Right off the bat, the reviewers rated the AI-guided stories as being more original, better written, and more enjoyable to read. (Interesting to note that they did not find them funnier than the fully human-inspired stories.)

This actually isn’t that surprising. Most writers know the “blank page dread” at the beginning of a project. Even as I write this, I can’t help but wonder, “If I had been tasked with writing an eight-sentence story, what the heck would I have written about?”

Many writers share this sense of needing to pick the “right” story to tell. And that uniquely human concept of perfectionism can end up actually inhibiting our creative process.

A prompt, then, can help us quickly clear this mental hurdle. To test this, I’ll give you one, courtesy of ChatGPT: “Write a story about a teenager who discovers a mysterious journal that reveals hidden secrets about their town, leading them on an unexpected adventure to uncover the truth.”

Can you feel your creative juices flowing already?

Since its release, AI has been celebrated for its ability to assist in idea generation; and this study confirms how effective using artificial intelligence in this way can be for writers — some, it seems, more than others.

AI-Generated Ideas Helped Less Creative Writers More

It doesn’t feel great to judge a writer’s creative prowess, but for this study, researchers needed to do just that. Prior to writing their short stories, the writers took a test to measure their creativity.

Researchers found that those considered less creative did substantially better when given AI-generated ideas — to the point where getting the full five ideas from AI “effectively equalizes the creativity scores across less and more creative writers.”

This isn’t the case just for writing. Another study by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship WZ also found that AI tools most benefit employees with weaker skills.

So is AI leveling the playing field between okay and great writers? It seems it may be. But before we lament, there’s one more finding that proves using AI isn’t all perks.

AI-Aided Stories Were More Similar — And Needed to Be Credited

The researchers took a step back to look at all the AI-supported stories collectively. And what did they find?

The AI-assisted stories were more similar as a whole, compared to the fully human-written stories.

Additionally, when reviewers were told that a story was enhanced by an AI idea, they “imposed an ownership penalty of at least 25%,” even indicating that “the content creators, on which the models were based, should be compensated.”

This leads us to that all-important question about AI-assisted work: who owns the content?

According to Originality.AI, an AI and plagiarism detector, “When there’s a combination of AI and human-generated elements, the human elements may receive copyright protection if they meet the requirements.”

So right now, if a writer uses AI to generate ideas — but writes the content themselves — they retain rights to the work.

However, Originality.AI even admits that “the legal system is having a hard time keeping up” with the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence. Time will only tell what AI regulations will look like in a few years.

What Does an AI-Assisted Literary Future Look Like?

The researchers from the University of Exeter Business School study raise an interesting point about what the future landscape for writers may look like. If droves of authors begin using AI to come up with ideas, we may end up with a lot of well-written yet dime-a-dozen stories.

So will human beings choose the easier, but less diverse, path? Or will we stick to fighting through writer’s block armed with nothing but our own brain?

Or, a third option: can we somehow learn to harness AI to supercharge our writing process without sacrificing the wholly unique creativity that infuses human creation?

That’s one question that even ChatGPT can’t answer.

Editor's Note: Artificial intelligence may have already transformed writing, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be in control of your own words. Read Astrohaus Founder Adam Leeb's statement on AI and privacy.

Learn more

August 22, 2024 • 8 min read

Reimagining the Future of Storytelling in a World with AI

While AI has capabilities that range from coding to image generation, the model that excites — and terrifies — writers is the LLM. It won’t be long before we see the world’s first blockbuster novel, written entirely by an LLM. What does this mean for art, and writers in particular? Is it all doom and gloom? The answer is, of course, more complicated than yes or no.