SMALLPRINT:THERE IS A BEAUTY to the typewriter. The reassuringly weighty feel of it, the sensory experience of striking spring-loaded keys and the magical clack-a-clack noise of ink hitting paper. But try telling that to young people. Keyboards these days are soft and silent affairs – as if you are typing in zero-gravity conditions.

It came as no surprise that when the computer first reached critical mass one of the most popular early programs (these days we’d call it an App) was a device that sonically impersonated the clack-a-clack sound of the old manual typewriter for your new computers keyboard. It provided a fools-gold type of reassurance for an older generation who simply couldnt get used to the eerie silence of the computer keyboard.

It seems the more we technologically progress, the more we still yearn for the familiar touch of the old. The iPad and the tablet in general may be the smart new-tech kids on the block but you can drag these devices right back to Raymond Chandlers time (when the typewriter had a real sense of romance to it) with the very desirable looking iTypewriter.

Go to anthropologie.eu and search for it and youll see a fantastically retro typewriter that “docks” with your iPad or even desktop computer so that as you bang away on the keys your text gets printed on the computer screen. Take away the iPad/desktop and it still works as a normal typewriter.

This clash of past and present is enough to make you swoon. But at €858 a pop, one ruefully suspects it wont be troubling Santa too much. Gallant help is at hand though. Go over to usbtypewriter.com and theyll talk you through the DIY alternative: how to set up a kit that converts any existing manual typewriter into a USB-ready keyboard which will work with any Mac, PC or iPad device. And the kit comes in at a more pleasing price of €57. You know you want to.