6 ms·

Daily-Driving a Blackberry in 2023

41 points by ColinWright 3y ago

freedomben 3y ago
I think nostalgia tends to corrupt our memories somewhat, but the peak usefulness of my phone really was my last blackberry. There are certainly modern conveniences that are game changers and I would not want to live without, such as Google maps and audio players (music, podcasts, audiobookshelf), but as far as a communication device for text messaging and email, my blackberry with keyboard was insanely productive. The soft keyboards on modern smartphones are just terrible. Google's latest speech to text has gotten pretty good, probably to the point where it is equivalent to where things were with the blackberry, but if you are writing something that can't be easily spoken or if it gets punctuation incorrect, it is a pain in the ass to fix it with the soft keyboard.
- afandian 3y ago
  Before my iPhone my previous two phones were a BlackBerry KeyOne (android) and BlackBerry Passport (BlackBerry 10). Not enough time has passed for nostalgia to set in. Those phones were the high water mark. This iPhone is generally fine but the keyboard is an awful compromise IMO. I don’t think I’ve ever typed a sentence correctly first time, or as fast as on a BlackBerry.
  - walterbell 3y ago
    Seen the Fairberry, BB Q10 keyboard + PCB + 3D holder for modern phones? https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry
    - afandian 3y ago
      I literally just bought one of these. It’s still in the post. https://www.tindie.com/stores/zitaotech/ https://www.tindie.com/stores/zitaotech/
      - walterbell 3y ago
        Looks great, thanks for the pointer to pre-assembled units.
        afandian 3y ago
        It's arrived, and I recommend it!
- ninkendo 3y ago
  > The soft keyboards on modern smartphones are just terrible I find it’s best to think of the iOS keyboard[0] as being a single big touch area with no distinct buttons, which you type into by tapping your fingers in the general vicinity of where the correct keys are, and let autocorrect do all the work. I get confused by people who disable autocorrect, because for me it’s the only way the keyboard works at all. Just as I’m typing this, fully half the words I’m typing are wrong as I’m typing them, and the phone is figuring out my actual meaning only by looking back entire sentences and figuring out the correct words by looking at probabilities. I never stop to check whether it got the word right, I just keep typing. It figures it out eventually. (Side note, when it does get it wrong, I can’t imagine a worse system for correcting words than iOS has. I simply cannot ever get the cursor to go to the right place for correction. Whatever system is being used for placing the cursor in response to inaccurate taps, is fully and diametrically opposed to how I’d expect it to work. It’s criminally bad.) - [0] probably android too, but I only have experience with iOS so that’s what I’m speaking to.
  - thomaskahabka 3y ago
    To your side note: did you know you can use the iOS keyboards space bar as touch pad control for the text cursor? Just press and hold. That makes positioning the cursor very easy.
    - natebc 3y ago
      FWIW the default soft keyboard on Android functions the same way. Remembering to use it is the big trick!
      - Tijdreiziger 3y ago
        This is true, but the UX is much nicer on iOS.
        burntwater 3y ago
        I disagree, I find the total keyboard experience much better on Android. To each their own, obviously. But... yeah, IMO it's pretty bad on Apple.
- jeffbee 3y ago
  My Blackberry was the first platform on which I ever used Google Maps. By the way a Blackberry user need not go without GPS. They can pair with and use a standalone Bluetooth GPS peripheral that is about the size of a pack of chewing gum.
- VelesDude 3y ago
  This is something I highlight with the trend toward dumb phones. The input system on them sucks, it makes smart phone input look eloquent even though it is clumsy. The idea that a lot of the time the opposite of one bad idea is another bad idea. The Blackberry form factor is a reasonable middle way that could be explored again. Blackberry input systems but with the expanded functionality of smart phones - just adjust the app quantity/quality to your needs. There have been companies that have tried but their efforts have been clunky and with out native OS support and apps developed with it in mind, it is an uphill battle.
madmaniak 3y ago
I went that path. At first my smartphone stopped working for no reason. I thought it's great moment to downgrade to dumb phone. After about a year I lost my sim card... Then I thought it's great moment to get rid of my phone at all. I needed to detach all services related to my phone - which sometimes is tricky. After all I'm phone-free since 2018. In the meantime I was traveling a lot, working for different companies and I was in touch with friends. I'm known in my circle that I have no phone. At work they don't even ask.
- ColinWright 3y ago
  Recently I went into the bank to sort out a small issue. They said: Them: "We'll send a code to your phone." Me: "Currently roaming isn't working on my phone, so I can't receive SMSs." They stopped and looked at me, and said: Them: "Well, we can't proceed." There are some services that assume you have a phone, and simply will not work without. And some of them are effectively essential.
  - loloquwowndueo 3y ago
    “Ok, then let’s cancel all my accounts right here and now. Cut me a cashiers cheque for the remaining balance”. That’ll get them to move.
    - ninkendo 3y ago
      It won’t because they can’t verify that you are who you say you are in first place, so to them you’re just a scammer trying to socially engineer them. (Or at least that’s how they should be treating you if they were trained correctly.)
      - iforgotpassword 3y ago
        They're in a bank. In person. How can an SMS be considered safer than that?
      - loloquwowndueo 3y ago
santoshalper 3y ago
I am always torn when I read posts like this. On one hand, I have very mixed feelings about smartphones. It alarms me that we have become so intensely dependent on a device that is so new. I have vivid memories of navigating the world without Google Maps and not feeling constantly tethered to a device. On the other hand, these posts often feel incredibly precious, like the author has an unbelievable amount of free time to waste. It's similar to the feeling I get when I meet someone with an old-timey handlebar mustache. It's hard not to roll my eyes.
- talldrinkofwhat 3y ago
  Where exactly are you accounting for wasted time? On navigation? On posting about not having a smartphone? The amount of time saved not having a smartphone (interacting with the internet using a computer [keyboards, adblockers, multiple screens, user vs owner dynamics]) outweighs any extra costs in my opinion. Navigating around town becomes second nature once you stop receiving turn by turn directions from Google-et-al. The only argument I've ever heard of that rings true is not having access to ride shares (ironicly named to boot).
  - eru 3y ago
    You can have adblockers on your phone, too. On both Android and iOS. (I haven't investigated eg Windows phones.) > Navigating around town becomes second nature once you stop receiving turn by turn directions from Google-et-al. Depends on how big your town is and how frequently you go around in it. I typically don't receive turn-by-turn instructions where I live; I guess they only really make sense for someone who uses a car? That's not very common here.
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  > I have vivid memories of navigating the world without Google Maps and not feeling constantly tethered to a device. I'd still advise people to navigate without relying on Google or Apple Maps, not for nostalgia or "live in the moment", but because navigation softs are just not optimal[0] most of the time, especially for walking/biking. Looking at the map and deciding your path yourself, checking only from time to time if you're on the path you chose or to check the landmarks is to me a way better experience. I wonder if there's OSM apps that let the user draw a route and only notify when they substancialy deviate or at checkpoints they set. [0] Outside of finding the actual shortest path, you probably have preferences on walking larger or narrower streets, less or more car traffic, better lighting at night, have nearby options to enter a cafe when you need to etc.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
MarkusWandel 3y ago
In my technological bottom feeder journey, for a while I had a Blackberry Curve (don't recall model number) that had cost me a kingly $2 at a garage sale. It was literally curvaceous. Super pleaseant to handle, everything about its design was perfect. Even the default "email arrived" sound was so melodious that I wish I had a sample of it to use on my Android phone now. The only problem was, without BB service, it was unstable. The data connection would just silently "pause" leaving you with no email delivery to the (aftermarket) email client. And the keyboard was miles better than any touchscreen keyboard. My next find was an old Xperia X1, the one with the slide-out keyboard. That was a neat device, even if WinCE was an awful mobile OS - at least the data connection stayed up and emails got delivered. After that, Windows Mobile 8 for a while which was actually great. Three technological dead ends before finally going mainstream.
- slothtrop 3y ago
  The Curve 9320 is the best phone experience I've ever had in my life. It fell short on web, but at the time I didn't care. BB10 phones that came later were more of a swiss army knife adapted to modern needs, but they felt somewhat more sluggish.
slothtrop 3y ago
Ah, I miss it so much. Adding to the conversation on touchscreen keyboards, yes I know that technically they can be faster but the frustration of dealing with auto-correct and miss-typing constantly ends up being a slower, more frustrating experience. There was no better typing experience than my BB. Still today, I don't use the phone much except for SMS and core productivity stuff. Mind you, I have the benefit of working at a computer.

41 points by ColinWright 3y ago

I think nostalgia tends to corrupt our memories somewhat, but the peak usefulness of my phone really was my last blackberry. There are certainly modern conveniences that are game changers and I would not want to live without, such as Google maps and audio players (music, podcasts, audiobookshelf), but as far as a communication device for text messaging and email, my blackberry with keyboard was insanely productive. The soft keyboards on modern smartphones are just terrible. Google's latest speech to text has gotten pretty good, probably to the point where it is equivalent to where things were with the blackberry, but if you are writing something that can't be easily spoken or if it gets punctuation incorrect, it is a pain in the ass to fix it with the soft keyboard.

afandian 3y ago
Before my iPhone my previous two phones were a BlackBerry KeyOne (android) and BlackBerry Passport (BlackBerry 10). Not enough time has passed for nostalgia to set in. Those phones were the high water mark. This iPhone is generally fine but the keyboard is an awful compromise IMO. I don’t think I’ve ever typed a sentence correctly first time, or as fast as on a BlackBerry.
- walterbell 3y ago
  Seen the Fairberry, BB Q10 keyboard + PCB + 3D holder for modern phones? https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry
  - afandian 3y ago
    I literally just bought one of these. It’s still in the post. https://www.tindie.com/stores/zitaotech/ https://www.tindie.com/stores/zitaotech/
    - walterbell 3y ago
      Looks great, thanks for the pointer to pre-assembled units.
      - afandian 3y ago
        It's arrived, and I recommend it!
ninkendo 3y ago
> The soft keyboards on modern smartphones are just terrible I find it’s best to think of the iOS keyboard[0] as being a single big touch area with no distinct buttons, which you type into by tapping your fingers in the general vicinity of where the correct keys are, and let autocorrect do all the work. I get confused by people who disable autocorrect, because for me it’s the only way the keyboard works at all. Just as I’m typing this, fully half the words I’m typing are wrong as I’m typing them, and the phone is figuring out my actual meaning only by looking back entire sentences and figuring out the correct words by looking at probabilities. I never stop to check whether it got the word right, I just keep typing. It figures it out eventually. (Side note, when it does get it wrong, I can’t imagine a worse system for correcting words than iOS has. I simply cannot ever get the cursor to go to the right place for correction. Whatever system is being used for placing the cursor in response to inaccurate taps, is fully and diametrically opposed to how I’d expect it to work. It’s criminally bad.) - [0] probably android too, but I only have experience with iOS so that’s what I’m speaking to.
- thomaskahabka 3y ago
  To your side note: did you know you can use the iOS keyboards space bar as touch pad control for the text cursor? Just press and hold. That makes positioning the cursor very easy.
  - natebc 3y ago
    FWIW the default soft keyboard on Android functions the same way. Remembering to use it is the big trick!
    - Tijdreiziger 3y ago
      This is true, but the UX is much nicer on iOS.
      - burntwater 3y ago
        I disagree, I find the total keyboard experience much better on Android. To each their own, obviously. But... yeah, IMO it's pretty bad on Apple.
jeffbee 3y ago
My Blackberry was the first platform on which I ever used Google Maps. By the way a Blackberry user need not go without GPS. They can pair with and use a standalone Bluetooth GPS peripheral that is about the size of a pack of chewing gum.
VelesDude 3y ago
This is something I highlight with the trend toward dumb phones. The input system on them sucks, it makes smart phone input look eloquent even though it is clumsy. The idea that a lot of the time the opposite of one bad idea is another bad idea. The Blackberry form factor is a reasonable middle way that could be explored again. Blackberry input systems but with the expanded functionality of smart phones - just adjust the app quantity/quality to your needs. There have been companies that have tried but their efforts have been clunky and with out native OS support and apps developed with it in mind, it is an uphill battle.

madmaniak 3y ago

I went that path. At first my smartphone stopped working for no reason. I thought it's great moment to downgrade to dumb phone. After about a year I lost my sim card... Then I thought it's great moment to get rid of my phone at all. I needed to detach all services related to my phone - which sometimes is tricky. After all I'm phone-free since 2018. In the meantime I was traveling a lot, working for different companies and I was in touch with friends. I'm known in my circle that I have no phone. At work they don't even ask.

ColinWright 3y ago
Recently I went into the bank to sort out a small issue. They said: Them: "We'll send a code to your phone." Me: "Currently roaming isn't working on my phone, so I can't receive SMSs." They stopped and looked at me, and said: Them: "Well, we can't proceed." There are some services that assume you have a phone, and simply will not work without. And some of them are effectively essential.
- loloquwowndueo 3y ago
  “Ok, then let’s cancel all my accounts right here and now. Cut me a cashiers cheque for the remaining balance”. That’ll get them to move.
  - ninkendo 3y ago
    It won’t because they can’t verify that you are who you say you are in first place, so to them you’re just a scammer trying to socially engineer them. (Or at least that’s how they should be treating you if they were trained correctly.)
    - iforgotpassword 3y ago
      They're in a bank. In person. How can an SMS be considered safer than that?
    - loloquwowndueo 3y ago

santoshalper 3y ago

I am always torn when I read posts like this. On one hand, I have very mixed feelings about smartphones. It alarms me that we have become so intensely dependent on a device that is so new. I have vivid memories of navigating the world without Google Maps and not feeling constantly tethered to a device. On the other hand, these posts often feel incredibly precious, like the author has an unbelievable amount of free time to waste. It's similar to the feeling I get when I meet someone with an old-timey handlebar mustache. It's hard not to roll my eyes.

talldrinkofwhat 3y ago
Where exactly are you accounting for wasted time? On navigation? On posting about not having a smartphone? The amount of time saved not having a smartphone (interacting with the internet using a computer [keyboards, adblockers, multiple screens, user vs owner dynamics]) outweighs any extra costs in my opinion. Navigating around town becomes second nature once you stop receiving turn by turn directions from Google-et-al. The only argument I've ever heard of that rings true is not having access to ride shares (ironicly named to boot).
- eru 3y ago
  You can have adblockers on your phone, too. On both Android and iOS. (I haven't investigated eg Windows phones.) > Navigating around town becomes second nature once you stop receiving turn by turn directions from Google-et-al. Depends on how big your town is and how frequently you go around in it. I typically don't receive turn-by-turn instructions where I live; I guess they only really make sense for someone who uses a car? That's not very common here.
makeitdouble 3y ago
> I have vivid memories of navigating the world without Google Maps and not feeling constantly tethered to a device. I'd still advise people to navigate without relying on Google or Apple Maps, not for nostalgia or "live in the moment", but because navigation softs are just not optimal[0] most of the time, especially for walking/biking. Looking at the map and deciding your path yourself, checking only from time to time if you're on the path you chose or to check the landmarks is to me a way better experience. I wonder if there's OSM apps that let the user draw a route and only notify when they substancialy deviate or at checkpoints they set. [0] Outside of finding the actual shortest path, you probably have preferences on walking larger or narrower streets, less or more car traffic, better lighting at night, have nearby options to enter a cafe when you need to etc.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

MarkusWandel 3y ago

In my technological bottom feeder journey, for a while I had a Blackberry Curve (don't recall model number) that had cost me a kingly $2 at a garage sale. It was literally curvaceous. Super pleaseant to handle, everything about its design was perfect. Even the default "email arrived" sound was so melodious that I wish I had a sample of it to use on my Android phone now. The only problem was, without BB service, it was unstable. The data connection would just silently "pause" leaving you with no email delivery to the (aftermarket) email client. And the keyboard was miles better than any touchscreen keyboard. My next find was an old Xperia X1, the one with the slide-out keyboard. That was a neat device, even if WinCE was an awful mobile OS - at least the data connection stayed up and emails got delivered. After that, Windows Mobile 8 for a while which was actually great. Three technological dead ends before finally going mainstream.

slothtrop 3y ago
The Curve 9320 is the best phone experience I've ever had in my life. It fell short on web, but at the time I didn't care. BB10 phones that came later were more of a swiss army knife adapted to modern needs, but they felt somewhat more sluggish.

slothtrop 3y ago

Ah, I miss it so much. Adding to the conversation on touchscreen keyboards, yes I know that technically they can be faster but the frustration of dealing with auto-correct and miss-typing constantly ends up being a slower, more frustrating experience. There was no better typing experience than my BB. Still today, I don't use the phone much except for SMS and core productivity stuff. Mind you, I have the benefit of working at a computer.