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A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021
- wffurr 6y agoNo actual device announced, just a licensing agreement for the Blackberry brand to a Foxconn subsidiary "to deliver a new 5G BlackBerry Android smartphone with physical keyboard, in the first half of 2021 in North America and Europe". Bad title, the original is "OnwardMobility Announces Agreements with BlackBerry and Foxconn Subsidiary FIH Mobile to Bring BlackBerry 5G Smartphones to Market" which I might summarize as "Foxconn Subsidiary Licenses Blackberry Brand".
- Normille 6y agoYes. I think that entire long 'article' could have been summarised in about two, very uninformative sentences.
- dang 6y agoOK, we've replaced the submitted title ("New BlackBerry with physical keyboard announced") with a substring of the article title. This thread is pretty good though. Sometimes a lame article generates good comments.
- walterbell 6y agoThis article includes a bit of history and context ("Who Are These People?") about the new team, https://www.pcmag.com/news/new-blackberry-with-keyboard-coming-in-2021 https://www.pcmag.com/news/new-blackberry-with-keyboard-comi... > The maker of super-tough phones largely sells them to large business and industrial customers, but it also has products at all three major US carriers.
- dang 6y agoOk let's change to that from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200819005202/en/OnwardMobility-Announces-Agreements-BlackBerry-Foxconn-Subsidiary-FIH https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200819005202/en/Onw.... Thanks!
- sharkmerry 6y agoAs someone currently with a Key1 and have stubbornly held onto physical keyboards, I am hopeful this pans out. But other phone with physical keyboards have been promised and never come to fruition
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago> But other phone with physical keyboards have been promised and never come to fruition And others have; I'm typing this comment on a Gemini (Planet Computers).
- otabdeveloper4 6y agoI have a Unihertz Titan and it feels like a better Blackberry than Blackberry ever was. (I only ever used Blackberries since BB10 and later.)
- SuperPaintMan 6y agoA Key2 is my daily, but there's a backup unlocked Titan running Lineage ready to take over if it dies. Now the question is, once this hardware becomes available will I still need it or will the Key2 power though. Although being able to load GSIs on the Titan feels amazing!
- borgel 6y agoWoah, I had no idea there was a Lineage build for the Titan! Is it available through the Lineage site?
- xt00 6y agoIs there a name for the formula that blackberry and others follow? 1) successful consumer business 2) lose in the market so pivot to b2b 3) slow long decline 4) sell brand / assets to somebody else 5) new money results in a “hey we are going back to our roots” and launch products they originally were known for 6) finally go out of business for real, or sell remaining IP to a troll
- mothsonasloth 6y agoI don't know if there is a such a term or concept but I would put these companies or products in the same category: Motorola, IBM Thinkpad, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu computers
- OlderWhiskey 6y agoLenovo has done a decent job with ThinkPad. I'm running an X1 Carbon and love it.
- as1mov 6y agoEh, they've butchered the T and X series. Aping the Macbooks will be their downfall.
- gburdell3 6y agoWhat did they do to butcher them in your opinion? I just recently picked up a new X390 and it's a great machine for the price, with better specs in just about every area than a Macbook for half the price. Only thing I would improve is the screen, 1080p doesn't cut it these days.
- as1mov 6y agoI've used the older T420/30/X220/30 series laptops, and they are generally regarded to be well built modular machines that can last for a long time and can be upgraded with minimal fuss. They had 2 non-soldered RAM slots, removable storage, easily swappable batteries. If anyone is looking for cheap refurbished laptops, these are usually the go to suggestions for them. I think the among the newer Thinkpads, only T480 has these capabilities, except the swappable batteries.
- philips 6y agoRelatedly I find it amazing that Planet Computers has found a niche and developed multiple cell phones with tiny qwerty keyboards. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... https://store.planetcom.co.uk/ https://store.planetcom.co.uk/
- zevv 6y agoI just "finished" my first Gemini after using the hell out of it for two years straight until it finally gave up on me - it had missing keycaps, the obligatory cracked screen, dents & scratches for the last few months of its life, but still would not give up on me - until it finally went out few weeks ago. I tried to do without a keyboard for two days, but I just can't do it, and got myself a new unit from Planet. I guess I'm an old-skool kind of user, my primary app is termux + openssh for doing my mail and irc remotely, but the keyboard is good enough to do the occasional sysadmin and coding work - and that's not something you'd typically do on a blackberry. I highly recommend this device. It has its flaws, but it's unike any other device available at this time.
- crims0n 6y agoHow usable do you find the keyboard with a terminal? I had not heard about these before today but I am curious now. Both the Gemini and the Cosmo look almost perfect as a portable terminal - the only thing I can see missing is usb-c power delivery for docking.
- zevv 6y agoIt takes a day or two to get used to the small form factor, my left hand types with 4 fingers, right usually one or two. I was never a 10-finger-type of touchtyper anyway. Because of the limited key count somey characters are in strange places with a fn-combo, but these you just learn over time. I find the keyboard good enough to take my phone out and write a proper business email, caps, punctuation, lingo and all. I find the keyboard good enough to reply to threads like this while waiting for the kids in the park. I find it good enough to fix a small bug in software, do basic git bookkeeping. I use it for IRC all day long. I do not find the keyboard good enough to sit down and write proper documentation, or do real coding sessions.
- VectorLock 6y agoWhat percentage of the market for phones come with physical keyboards? I know some cling to the idea but I think the technology has progressed far enough to mostly eclipse it in every practical way, certain holdouts not withstanding, and the market reflects that.
- HarryHirsch 6y agoDo people really like these huge breakable touchscreens that you leave oily fingerprints on, or do they merely tolerate them? It's a damn shame that phones with smaller screens and optical touchpad don't exist any longer.
- dragonwriter 6y ago> Do people really like these huge breakable touchscreens that you leave oily fingerprints on, or do they merely tolerate them? Yes, people like them, which is why when they and “lets use half the available space for a physical keyboard” phones were on the market together, the latter got slaughtered by the former. Physical keyboard win for tactile feedback (touchscreen haptics aren't even close), but lose in adaptability (can't switch positions or layouts dynamically for different languages/contexts/emojis/gifs/one-handed use/handwriting/etc, usable screen space when the keyboard isn't in use, and, plus, the screen is still breakable but smaller, but now you also have a bunch of breakable mechanical parts.
- VectorLock 6y agoGlass and screens on modern phones are amazingly durable now. I don't even bother with screen protectors now since under normal usage they're virtually unscratchable.
- Normille 6y agoIt's not the scratching that's the problem. It's the shattering. I'll take, any day, a hard plastic screen which will survive being kicked round the streets with only a bit of scuffing to show for it over a scratch-proof glass one which turns into a mosaic if it drops off my desk.
- honkycat 6y agoI would be super into a phone with a physical keyboard, but I am on Google Fi and I am hesitant to switch. I've given up on swipe typing. I have been using it for almost a decade and I still cannot type effectively with it. I am ready to go back to physical keys.
- marssaxman 6y agoI've been really content with my BlackBerry KeyOne and now KeyTwo. I got really tired of trying to type on glass; physical keys just work. I can find them with my fingers instead of my eyes, so there's a lot less ongoing frustration. I will likely try this new BlackBerry whenever my KeyTwo wears out, because the real keyboard makes a big difference.
- beerandt 6y agoI'm amazed no company seems to be interested in filling the market niche for physical keyboards. I swear swype typing seems to have gotten progressively worse since it's early days, I suspect as machine learning from public data is relied on more than personal mechanics. And also as the pool of users became more diverse, especially older (fat finger users like my parents) and less tech knowledgeable (ie don't use shortcuts or "hidden" features like swiping the spacebar, etc). I used to be able to rely on muscle memory to swipe, but now that just seems to beg for the wrong result. I know I'd pay a premium for a blackberry or htc tilt-2 style physical keyboard. At this point, I'd almost go back to pocket typing with a physical dialpad and T3, circa 2000 style.
- Normille 6y agoThe weird thing about swype typing for me is how it can swing from hugely impressive to beyond lunatic in the space of a couple of sentences. One minute, I'm amazed when I've swyped a sentence using some of my favourite slang words [or even made up words / nicknames etc] and found it's been transcribed perfectly. The next, I'm staring in disbelief as it inserts some completely off the wall term like 'albatross' or 'dar es salaam' for a really everyday word.
- walterbell 6y ago
- 908B64B197 6y agoI remember a few years ago Samsung selling a keyboard case for one of it's phones [0]. If I recall the phone would detect it and scale the UI so that the keyboard wouldn't cover any important part of the screen. Sounds like the ideal tradeoff. I've never seen one in real life however, so that tells me how big the demand for a physical keyboard is. [0] https://www.zdnet.com/article/samsung-keyboard-cover-for-galaxy-s8-plus-a-physical-keyboard-when-you-need-it/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/samsung-keyboard-cover-for-gal...
- derekp7 6y agoI've actually been planning on getting one of those mini Bluetooth keyboards, take it out of the case, and design a custom cell phone case where the top hinges up similar to how a tackle box opens up. Still working out the details and measurements though.
- Normille 6y agoThose mini BT keyboards are great for the money. I got a no-brand copy of a Rii one for £8 off eBay to replace the Apple keyboard I use to control my media server and which was gradually dying one key t a time. I was really impressed at how the mini BT keyboard 'just worked' on my odd setup of Ubuntu running on Apple hardware. It's pretty tolerable to type on --at least for shortish stuff like web searches and naming files, etc. and it goes for a week or two on a charge.
- arch-ninja 6y agoGod I wish BB10 was open sourced. Today the biggest problem with phones is their bloated runtimes, android being the largest offender. I want something with the form factor of the q10 running a QNX-based os I can ssh to and use rsync to copy music, contacts, and a calendar to.
- walterbell 6y agoBB10 had the opportunity to support security and the open web, instead of chasing the app store quagmire. WebOS is now open-source and based on OpenEmbedded, which can be minimized. Blackberry has already ported some of their special sauce to Android, they could do the same for WebOS, extracting suitable components from both BB10 and QNX/automotive. Instead of worrying about apps (previous war), they could invest in a Rust-based browser and WebAssembly for mobile devices, building on their security strengths. Allow the 'mobile' device to dock with USB-C to a desktop display and keyboard, and you've got a WFH story for security-sensitive apps/data. They have enough proprietary security software to sell on top of WebOS. Convert Blackberry Messenger to IETF MLS (open-standard E2E encrypted group messaging) and enable interop with Matrix and other apps/platforms that embrace MLS, while (re)creating a business identity network. By focusing on open standards and honoring their heritage in email/chat and physical UX, they could provide a usable alternative for high-end users who favor productivity and security without lock-in. Yes, BB was once the king of carrier gardens, but Apple is now a garden to be escaped, not emulated. There may be Firefox browser engineers recently on the market, who can hit the ground running with variations of the above strategy. LG, lead developer of OSS WebOS, does not compete with QNX or Blackberry. QNX remains an undervalued gem. A hybrid OSS+proprietary model can bridge BB past & future, but it requires vision from Blackberry, not only a new brand licensee.
- 908B64B197 6y agoTruth is, the company should have abandoned it's OS before they released their first touch screen device and go with Android. I remember playing with it (the Storm?). It was 2 years after the iPhone was released and it was two years behind the original iPhone. The only moat to keep users they had was their messaging app, but Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp killed it with interop. And it's not like their userbase was as valuable as, let's say, Bloomberg chat.
- supernova87a 6y agoHow is it possible that the key announcement of this development includes absolutely no photo of the purported keyboard?
- Tepix 6y agoComing before that: A Psion Series 5-inspired keyboard for PinePhone.
- 627467 6y agoBeen using BB10 Passport for past year as a daily driver. I wished a next gen device with BB10 would be available in the same format.
- Tsarbomb 6y agoCan I ask what kind of apps and functionality you use on it. I have a BB Passport in my drawer and occasionally turn it on.
- 627467 6y agoWondering if this is Nokia/HMD or more like previous BB/TCL.