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What I wouldn't give to have more physical interfaces for our devices. For large classes of problems, touchscreens are fantastic for programmers and terrible fo

What I wouldn't give to have more physical interfaces for our devices. For large classes of problems, touchscreens are fantastic for programmers and terrible for users. I did a school project a few years ago called NotherButton[0] which was a wrist-worn device that was intended to simply add a few physical buttons that could be mapped to arbitrary actions on your phone via bluetooth. I wish such a product existed. Just a few buttons and a click wheel would be incredible. [0]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lTOxHxHFjwJXeCLROAPf6OJDonKZ9pliw2NMhQ-8QLw/edit#heading=h.52vufnqzfry9 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lTOxHxHFjwJXeCLROAPf6OJD...

WesleyHale 5y ago
The Google G1 has been my best experience with a phone to date. I loved that keyboard and have been searching for a phone to scratch that itch ever since. There are a few devices that are in the physical button niche still, but from smaller companies and on crowd funding platforms. Their specs leave a lot of room for improvement as well and there is there is risk the device is never produced unfortunately. The two that have the most traction right now are the Pro 1X and the Astro Slide 5G. The Pro 1X is a second generation device that has a bad history with order completion. There are customers who ordered the first generation years ago who never received a phone. They bumped their order to the Pro 1X and are still waiting. the Astro 5g on the other hand is from Planet Computers. They've successfully produced a couple devices such as the Cosmo Communicator. I'll hopefully be getting my Astro this month after backing the project since November bof last year.
dgunay 5y ago
I actually have a Bluetooth device that attaches to my steering wheel with play/pause and scrubbing buttons to let me control my phone's music while driving. It's rough but usable. I think it's a great way to retrofit controls like that onto older cars.
- olyjohn 5y ago
  I have one like this too. It's just a little round device that has play/pause volume and next/prev tracks. Shows up on my Android phone as a standard Bluetooth keyboard. Sat in a drawer for years because it didn't work with my iPhones.

WesleyHale 5y ago

The Google G1 has been my best experience with a phone to date. I loved that keyboard and have been searching for a phone to scratch that itch ever since. There are a few devices that are in the physical button niche still, but from smaller companies and on crowd funding platforms. Their specs leave a lot of room for improvement as well and there is there is risk the device is never produced unfortunately. The two that have the most traction right now are the Pro 1X and the Astro Slide 5G. The Pro 1X is a second generation device that has a bad history with order completion. There are customers who ordered the first generation years ago who never received a phone. They bumped their order to the Pro 1X and are still waiting. the Astro 5g on the other hand is from Planet Computers. They've successfully produced a couple devices such as the Cosmo Communicator. I'll hopefully be getting my Astro this month after backing the project since November bof last year.

dgunay 5y ago

I actually have a Bluetooth device that attaches to my steering wheel with play/pause and scrubbing buttons to let me control my phone's music while driving. It's rough but usable. I think it's a great way to retrofit controls like that onto older cars.

olyjohn 5y ago
I have one like this too. It's just a little round device that has play/pause volume and next/prev tracks. Shows up on my Android phone as a standard Bluetooth keyboard. Sat in a drawer for years because it didn't work with my iPhones.