Tom Hanks Seeks iTunes Stardom With Typewriter App

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.

Hanx Writer, 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 told 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 tweeted 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 Draw a Stickman: Epic and Battlepillars -- 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.

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