[HN Gopher] Clicks - Physical keyboard for iPhone
___________________________________________________________________
Clicks - Physical keyboard for iPhone
Author : guyinblackshirt
Score : 893 points
Date : 2024-01-04 20:43 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.clicks.tech)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.clicks.tech)
| bochoh wrote:
| Disappointing (but understandable) that this is not available for
| my 14 Pro Max.
| netsharc wrote:
| Someone should just(TM) take the mechanism from a pinching
| phone holder (like [1] ), add the Bluetooth keyboard at the
| bottom, and make a universal phone keyboard extension...
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpbsbLIU5f8
| Affric wrote:
| Women's hands in every image yet a man's face everywhere. Just a
| little on the nose.
|
| Obviously I am not the target demographic but I am interested to
| see where this goes.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| I'm confused as to what you're implying - the first image with
| a person (after Mr. Mobile) is of a fully embodied woman, hands
| and all.
| Affric wrote:
| Unfortunately, attention to detail can sometimes go by the
| wayside when I am feeling righteous!
|
| I apologise. I am humbled.
| marcellus23 wrote:
| There looks like a mix of both women and men on that page?
| asow92 wrote:
| The second photo of a person on the page is of a women holding
| the phone and you can see her face.
| raylad wrote:
| iOs now has a way of moving the cursor by holding down spacebar
| and then dragging your finger. This also lets selections be
| extended.
|
| How will this keyboard replace that for cursor movement?
| I_Am_Nous wrote:
| Similar to other 3rd party keyboards, it probably just won't
| implement that. I don't think I've seen a 3rd party iOS
| keyboard that does.
| afandian wrote:
| I recently bought Samsung Galaxy add on keyboard, on a whim, to
| see if it would work with my iPhone. It sits over the screen
| where the onscreen keyboard is situated. On eBay it said
| "Bluetooth" but had no obvious signs of charging. Didn't work
| with the iPhone. Next hypothesis was something clever with NFC.
|
| Nope. Zero electronics. The reverse of the PCB has pads that fit
| over regions on the screen. On the front of the PCB, tactile dome
| switches short each pad through to a plane, presumably
| capacitively coupled to the hand.
|
| (Edited for detail)
|
| Why won't anyone do this for iPhones? (Patents or market?)
| sleepybrett wrote:
| My guess is 'you didn't look hard enough' or 'there were some
| but noone bothered to buy them and everyone stopped making
| them'. I was an avid sidekicker until the iphone2. I might have
| (lo 15 years ago) been interested in a slide out horizontal
| keyboard case for the iphone. Never happened, adapted and now
| with 'slide' keyboards never going back to chicklets.
| afandian wrote:
| I've seen various phone keyboards over the years but never
| recalled one that used capacitance.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| I've certainly had little stick on joysticks (suction cup)
| that use capacitance, they sucked. I think I remember
| seeing similar keyboards at the time.
| I_Am_Nous wrote:
| So it's basically a membrane keyboard with plungers hitting the
| "contacts" which are the keys on the touchscreen?
|
| My first concern would be tolerances - enough press to feel
| good, but not so far that you have to press too hard. Too short
| and you might accidentally press keys you didn't mean to.
| afandian wrote:
| These are standard tactile dome switches. And the PCB pads
| are static.
| B0073D wrote:
| I recall an old Ericsson phone that did this?
| zamadatix wrote:
| Do you have a model/name/link of this? I'm having a hard time
| following the description but it sounds like it sits on top of
| part of the screen? What happens when you fullscreen a video or
| otherwise don't have the keyboard up?
| osamagirl69 wrote:
| Seems to be this https://wonderfulengineering.com/samsung-
| unveils-a-qwerty-ke...
| afandian wrote:
| This, or similar. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mjwAqDS6EcU
|
| It clips on the front of the phone. Has a small magnet that
| presumably triggers the onscreen keyboard to show and resize
| the visible screen.
| chedabob wrote:
| I'd be surprised if Sony Ericsson didn't have a patent on it,
| because that was exactly how the numeric keypad worked on their
| early smartphones. They were resistive displays though, so they
| just required something hard on the back to register a touch.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| feels like this is ... 15 years late.
| stavros wrote:
| It might be 15 years overdue.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| I think people have adjusted, I also don't think anyone wants
| their phone to be .. what an inch and a half taller...
| matt_s wrote:
| Does it come with the Blackberry breakout game and a scroll
| wheel?
| otoburb wrote:
| I wonder how the microphone input and speaker ouput are affected
| with the keyboard cover. As shocking as it seems, not all iPhone
| users use AirPods for their calls.
| NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
| With it plugging into the lightning connector, can't it just
| use the pins on that to bring the mike and speaker back out to
| extras built into the new device? Or are those not exposed in
| such a way as to allow it?
| happyopossum wrote:
| They could totally do that via lightning or USB-C (iPhone 14
| vs 15), but it doesn't appear that they have.
| bastijn wrote:
| I wonder how this would feel in hand, grip seems to have
| unbalanced weight when I mimic on my iPhone pro max 11. Like it
| wants to tip over but maybe if you really have something physical
| at the bottom it is not that bad.
|
| Blackberry sacrificed screen for the keyboard so balance was all
| OK.
|
| I also caught myself thinking these buttons were too round and
| too tiny as compared to my on-screen keyboard. Also not having
| the luxury of seeing all my special characters appear on the keys
| when pressing the 123/#+= etc to toggle keyboards would be
| something to get used to. E.g. Type a {} or ~.
| intrasight wrote:
| Why not have the keyboard part of the case and fold down
| markrogersjr wrote:
| I wonder what the effect of the key rows not being offset is on
| the UX.
| apimade wrote:
| The fake podcast promo video is.. Weird.
| allenu wrote:
| It's fascinating that a fake podcast conversation is a
| potentially better way to communicate a sales pitch than
| someone talking directly at the audience. I'll admit I was also
| wondering "Who is this guy talking to? Was this a clip from a
| podcast he was on?" Having never seen him before, my conclusion
| was he is a podcast guy, but then again maybe it's a fake
| podcast environment purely for enhancing the marketing message?
| dqv wrote:
| It was supposed to be a joke! Not inspiration!
| https://i.redd.it/g8o4nu49rfz51.jpg
|
| I like having a physical keyboard, but not like this... it makes
| the phone too long. A slide out is preferred. I'm just going to
| stick with a regular bluetooth keyboard.
| iddan wrote:
| Slide out, now that's a 2000s throw back!
| dqv wrote:
| I want to throw it back even further to a Sidekick honestly.
| I never got to experience having one and I'd love a modern
| phone that flips open like the Sidekick does.
| abathur wrote:
| Same, though I did have a Sidekick (2008).
|
| I've never stopped missing it. Every time I start trying to
| ~swipe some technical term that the keyboard won't get
| unless I've added it previously. Every time I type 'n'
| instead of a space. And more.
|
| I was perusing the patents a few weeks ago and noting that
| some of them are coming up (but some were a few years out).
| MetaWhirledPeas wrote:
| I liked my Sidekick, and the keyboard was pretty good. But
| honestly I've been pretty happy with how software keyboards
| have evolved, and I'm pretty sure physical buttons would
| just slow me down at this point.
|
| However, one thing I'll continue missing from the Sidekick
| are the gaming controls. It had a horrible d-pad and
| buttons but at least it _had them_. They 've been forced
| out of smartphones in the name of shaving off bezels and
| making the aspect ratio taller (eww). Give me a phone with
| a tiny d-pad and buttons please
| RHSeeger wrote:
| I would love to a Droid 2 style keyboard for my phone
|
| http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/wireless/detail-page/mo...
| RajT88 wrote:
| The Astro Slide is exactly this.
|
| Although - good luck getting one. And once you have one, it's
| just OK. Missing some fit and finish both in hardware and
| software.
| rrix2 wrote:
| I dropped mine less than a foot and the display broke
| entirely, six months ago, and they never shipped the
| "protection pack" with extra screen protectors and a hard
| shell case. Their support has yet to reply, much less quote
| an RMA. :(
| RajT88 wrote:
| I am in a similar boat. That thing is relatively fragile,
| with no options for cases/screen protectors.
|
| I think the company is well on the way to going belly up.
| Too bad too, their devices all had promise, they just
| needed to have more iterations to get better. They were
| too small clearly to even produce a new iteration, they
| were all-in on new designs from the Gemini / Cosmo /
| Astro Slide and now on to ARM Linux computers.
| xnzakg wrote:
| Having used a Gemini PDA from the same company (Planet
| Computers), that sure looks much more usable. The Gemini
| has a keyboard that closes onto the display, which on one
| hand does protect both the keyboard and the screen when
| closed, but makes for a really awkward experience when you
| need to use an app that only works in portrait mode. Was
| really quite nice for bringing around for coding or
| connecting over ssh. Can't complain too much about the
| hardware but the software could have used some more polish.
| The option to boot Debian was neat but felt like a proof of
| concept, stuck at an old version (though seems like some
| people managed to get it to update[0].
|
| A phone later I ended up getting a Samsung foldable
| (currently typing this on a Z Fold 3) and while I prefer
| physical keyboards, a split keyboard on the inner screen
| works pretty well in my experience.
|
| 0: https://consummatetinkerer.net/upgrading-debian-on-a-
| gemini-...
| stuaxo wrote:
| I have one, but I'm pretty clumsy, and there is no Linux
| for it (will probably happen one day).
|
| If I drop this it will die and fat chance getting it fixed.
|
| If Linux arrives I'll use it as a mini deck-thing, Android
| itself is absolutely shite to use with a keyboard.
| LegitShady wrote:
| Brings back fond memories of htc phones of yore
| prestonlibby wrote:
| I still have a HTC One M8 in use for Android bug bounty
| hunting, used it as my daily driver until 2020 thanks for
| LineageOS folks never letting it die. Those things were
| horrible to repair (sadly how many phones aren't these
| days) but amazing little devices. I still miss having a
| phone that size to be able to use comfortably in one hand.
| LegitShady wrote:
| I had one of those too - quite liked it. I think I got
| that one after I stopped using a nexus 4. I had a temp
| samsung galaxy s9 for about 6 months that I hated and
| then ended up getting a pixel XL and have only really had
| pixel phones since (pixel XL, pixel 3a XL, pixel 6a).
|
| I do miss the slidy keyboards on my old HTC phones - I
| think the first keyboard slider I got was an HTC Touch
| Pro still running windows mobile 6 because android wasn't
| a real thing then. That one required so much fiddling and
| rom stuff that LineageOS would have seemed like a
| beautiful dream.
| roughly wrote:
| Man, the droid is still my favorite mobile device I've ever
| owned. Such a great form factor, and felt super cyberpunk -
| especially the droid 1 in the early days of smart phones.
| Shame Jony Ive won the design war, it's all been flat black
| rectangles since then.
| nerdponx wrote:
| Bring back the Sidekick!
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| I had the Droid 1 and then the Droid 4. I loved the D4's
| keyboard since it had a dedicated number row.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droid_4#/media/File:Motorola_D.
| ..
| dylan604 wrote:
| the slide out could work if nothing more than to just balance
| the protrusion from the camera housing.
| gotbeans wrote:
| No one here realizes the sheer thumb strength of the guy in the
| pic.
| Vicinity9635 wrote:
| >whoa there, pardner!
|
| >Your request has been blocked due to a network policy.
|
| >Try logging in or creating an account here to get back to
| browsing.
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|
| >You can read Reddit's Terms of Service here.
|
| >if you think that we've incorrectly blocked you or you would
| like to discuss easier ways to get the data you want, please
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| [REDACTED] and reddit account
|
| lol, reddit is even more useless now
| hiepph wrote:
| True, now it's blocking some VPN IPs, which is annoying.
| Vicinity9635 wrote:
| Some sites treat my actual bareback ISP worse than a VPN.
| It would be funny if it didn't suck.
| mzitelli wrote:
| Nice horizontal scroll.
| alexchantavy wrote:
| As someone who grew up with the Blackjack and Sidekick phones I
| like this. I'll nitpick on a marketed scenario though:
|
| > Launch Spotlight
|
| > cmd + space
|
| Cool that there's a keyboard but this is more easily done by just
| dragging the home screen down. There are probably more powerful
| hotkey combos they can pick for the marketing here.
| I_Am_Nous wrote:
| If it can open spotlight while I'm still in another app and I
| don't have to go to the Home Screen before pulling down, that
| would be pretty awesome!
| taejavu wrote:
| Not exactly the same, but I much prefer using cmd+space on my
| iPad's physical keyboard than the equivalent touch action. This
| goes for pretty much all the shortcuts, keyboard wins every
| time due to tactile feedback and predictability.
| MBCook wrote:
| Remember they can't do anything special.
|
| Those are the standard shortcuts all keyboards get, meant for
| keyboards on iPads that also work on iPhones and thus work
| here.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| Is the idea that you always have this on, making your phone much
| longer (and potentially more unbalanced) than it was before, or
| that you keep it around for when you want to text? Seems like you
| always want to keep it on because you have to hook it up to the
| port, but you're adding a fair bit of length to the phone.
|
| I generally enjoy Mr Mobile's reviews, but I just don't know
| about this product.
| CharlesW wrote:
| From the page: "Add a compact, lightweight keyboard when
| needed, or leave it on all the time - you decide!"
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| So they aren't sure either?
| jonplackett wrote:
| Unless you have ridiculous clown length pockets, I'm saying
| it's gonna be in your bag til you need it.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| seems like it could make the pro max quite top heavy
| zyang wrote:
| I have a feeling this is going to get bent in my pocket and
| damage the charging port. A desk stand with integrated keyboard
| would have been better.
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| Does it interface with the charge port? This image doesn't show
| a charge plug.
|
| https://assets-global.website-files.com/6571c5a614be2a1a6376...
| zyang wrote:
| Yes it's in the video. Part of the pitch is "no bluetooth
| just plugs into your charging port".
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| Oh gotcha thanks
| cazim wrote:
| It somehow reminded me of the Ericsson Chatboard.
| breitling wrote:
| Doesn't BlackBerry have a patent for this?
|
| Ryan Seacrest had started a iPhone physical keyboard company,
| Typo I think, and got sued so bad he abandoned the whole thing.
| How will these people get around it?
| bsimpson wrote:
| Apparently so:
| https://www.theverge.com/2015/6/1/8696991/blackberry-typo-ke...
|
| Our patent system is so absurd. How can BlackBerry own the
| concept of using a keyboard with a touchscreen?
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| Two patents were at play: D685,775, and 7,629,964. (http://ia
| 600308.us.archive.org/35/items/gov.uscourts.cand.27...)
|
| D685,775 expires in 2027. Whether it's relevant, only a
| lawyer can say.
| (https://patents.google.com/patent/USD685775S1/en)
|
| 7,629,964 expired in 2018.
| (https://patents.google.com/patent/US7629964B2/en)
| Findecanor wrote:
| Some articles about the lawsuit list a _third_ patent. It
| is a (real) invention patent, not a design patent, for the
| shape of the keys:
|
| 8,162,552 which expires in 2031.
| <https://patents.google.com/patent/US8162552B2/en>
| notatoad wrote:
| typo pretty blatantly ripped off the unique shape of the
| blackberry keys that makes them easier to hit than normal
| mini keyboards. i'm not a fan of the patent system, but that
| seems like an actual novel thing that blackberry legitimately
| invented.
| victorbjorklund wrote:
| Doubt they have a patent for "keyboard on phones" (I had a
| nokia with a physical keyboard). Was probably because it was
| very similar to blackberrys keyboard (really looks like they
| just stuck a blackberry keyboard on an iphone) while this one
| seems more different.
| pavon wrote:
| I'd guess those patents would have expired by now. They only
| last 20 years, and you must file them within 12 months of a
| product coming to market including that invention or you
| forfeit the right to patent it. So any patents related to the
| 7000 line or earlier would have expired, and I don't see
| anything about this keyboard that is similar to later BB
| keyboards.
| matt_heimer wrote:
| The Blackberry lawsuit against Typo seemed to be heavily design
| related, see the comparisons between Typo and Blackberry
| devices on page 14 and 15 of
| https://regmedia.co.uk/2015/02/18/blackberry_complaint_typo....
|
| I wonder if that is in part why Clicks has more colorful
| designs.
| bragr wrote:
| The proportions compared to a classic blackberry seem terrible
| for typing ergonomics. With a Blackberry, the overall device is
| closer to a square and the keyboard is basically the bottom half
| of the device. With the case, the keyboard is like the bottom 20%
| and it seems like the weight of the rest of the phone would be
| constantly trying to leverage it out of your grasp, especially
| since blackberries were like half as heavy as a modern
| smartphone.
| CodeWriter23 wrote:
| Marketing would say: enhanced tactile feedback
| Findecanor wrote:
| They did add a weight behind the keyboard so that it wouldn't
| feel too top-heavy.
| bragr wrote:
| The listed weight is 62-65g so its not appreciably more dense
| than the phone in my estimation, certainly not enough to
| greatly shift the center of gravity.
| skygazer wrote:
| I both love this and am horrified. It looks like it'd turn a Pro
| Max into a 9 inch tall phone. Since it's a case, you'd need a new
| one each phone upgrade. (I used to do this with the Apple battery
| cases, until I came to my senses and/or magsafe.) Although, I
| still occasionally long for the blind accuracy of the old
| Blackberry keyboard.
|
| I think I'd prefer an adjustable magsafe attached keyboard that
| can do either landscape or portrait, though. Sadly, I don't see
| ctrl, alt or arrow keys. SSH won't benefit as much.
|
| All that said, if this were $50, I'd already have ordered it.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| I hate that's its needed, but love that it exists
| jayd16 wrote:
| I wonder if a magsafe secured, size agnostic version could be
| made. Less locked in but easier to split across pockets and
| possibly works for more than one model.
| pedalpete wrote:
| This was my initial reaction, why have an entire case when it
| could be attached via magsafe. I wonder if it could be made
| to swivel/slide out of the way when not in use. Membrane
| keyboard could be super thin.
|
| But also.... no, I don't think I need/want this. But a cool
| design exercise.
| Caddickbrown wrote:
| In theory all it would need to be is a tiny Bluetooth
| keyboard with a MagSafe attachment and it would be
| functionally the same!
| cowsup wrote:
| Bluetooth would require separate charging and a heavier
| design for an onboard battery. Not to mention needing to
| turn it off and on, or making it "smart" and only turn on
| when pressed, which slows down typing itself when you
| really need it.
| cush wrote:
| > magsafe secured
|
| This certainly must have been an option they explored.
| Without a case secured to the body of the phone, pushing the
| keyboard buttons would probably pop off the magsafe
| connection. There's a lot of leverage on those clicks.
| silisili wrote:
| It'd be nice if the keyboard could flip backwards or slide away
| seamlessly.
| JadeNB wrote:
| That sounds like re-inventing the Sidekick
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Hiptop)!
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| And giving iPhone a physical keyboard is reinventing the
| blackberry. Never mind that the iPhone's mantra from the
| beginning has been away from the inadaptability of physical
| keyboards. (Watch the 2007 keynote for reference).
| schiffern wrote:
| > Never mind that the iPhone's _official marketing line_
| from the beginning has been...
|
| Fixed.
|
| It's an age-old sales tactic. "It's not a bug, it's a
| feature!"
| ceejayoz wrote:
| Given everyone else fairly rapidly followed along, and
| still are nearly 15 years later, "feature" seems
| accurate.
| xp84 wrote:
| RIP, I miss the Sidekick so much. Probably every millennial
| would have given anything to have one of these in 2001, but
| a data plan, the hardware cost itself, and exclusivity to
| T-Mobile placed it firmly outside the reach of everyone I
| knew including myself.
| mattl wrote:
| I had one much later in 2008, it cost $1 a day for
| unlimited data/service on a prepaid account IIRC.
| hamburglar wrote:
| I think a lot of people would like to see the sidekick
| reinvented tbh
| abustamam wrote:
| I agree. My mom's first android phone was the sidekick 4g
|
| https://www.t-mobile.com/devices/sidekick
|
| It was a solid device, but it got sluggish pretty
| quickly. Not sure if it was because of my mom's usage
| habits or the hardware.
|
| And my first android phone was the Motorola cliq
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Cliq
|
| I think I went through several devices on warranty
| because it malfunctioned in some way.
|
| Anyway, I just mention this because smartphones with
| keyboards are not new inventions, but fewer are being
| manufactured. I don't think I would get a smartphone with
| a keyboard, but I'd love to see more innovation in this
| space. I'm kinda tired of the whole "more, better
| cameras" and "more processing power" pattern we've been
| seeing.
| callalex wrote:
| Wow I guess it's been long enough. The mid aughts explored
| this whole world extensively and it all sucked which is why
| we ended up where we are. Although watching video content
| wasn't a thing the last time around so maybe there is room
| for improvement now...
| chihuahua wrote:
| Back then, I had a phone that had 2 separate slide-out
| keyboards: one for the digits, and one full qwerty. I
| didn't buy this monstrosity; my employer gave it to me for
| testing the app we were working on. Absolute madness, but
| also admirable that someone manufactured it.
| Eric_WVGG wrote:
| So many folks insisted that touchscreen keyboards were a fad,
| and everyone would come back to keyboards sooner or later.
|
| I knew they were wrong, but I figured there would at least be
| a permanent market for some 5% minority who needed their
| chiclet keyboards. Wrong!
|
| Honestly surprised that a device took so long to come to
| market... I'm not making any predictions this time.
| ansible wrote:
| I was a long-time holdout for landscape-mode physical
| keyboards. I owned the original ADP1 from Google, which had
| a decent keyboard. I then upgraded to the Samsung Sidekick
| 4G, which had an even better keyboard. After fixing the
| keyboard map, I installed a cut-down Debian userspace on it
| for mobile software development.
|
| After that, I looked at buying a Motorola Photon Q, but I
| would have had to hack it to get it on my preferred
| carrier. Even then it would have been expensive. I think my
| next actual phone was a Nexus 4, and I eventually got used
| to swiping.
|
| For overall typing and mobile software development
| experience, I've instead settled on relatively small and
| handy Chromebooks. This is even easier now days, because
| installing the Linux development environment is a few
| clicks.
| balaji1 wrote:
| Exactly, a fold-away/flip-away form factor that doubles as a
| phone-case might be better.
| dumpHero2 wrote:
| If it gains any traction, you'd be able to get a fairly decent
| Temu version in about 6 months from now for $30.
| stonegray wrote:
| There were cases available with a slide out keyboard for the
| iPhone 6, it looks like they cost ~$14
| girvo wrote:
| Those used Bluetooth and were horribly thick and you had to
| charge their battery and so on
| obilgic wrote:
| Whats the verdict on temu vs aliExpress. I still find things
| %30 cheaper on AE while most of my orders are delivered
| within 6 days.
| kshahkshah wrote:
| Out of curiosity, what types of goods do you get from those
| websites?
| theflyingelvis wrote:
| Chinese knockoffs and other junk products
| cobbaut wrote:
| > Chinese knockoffs and other junk products
|
| As if most of the originals aren't made in the very same
| factory in China.
| theflyingelvis wrote:
| For real
| serial_dev wrote:
| Smart home stuff, keyboards are cheap and pretty good on
| Ali Express.
| behnamoh wrote:
| When I wanted to build my own mech keeb, the components
| were available only on AE. On AMZ they were much more
| expensive.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| My experience with keyboard components on Amazon in
| Canada is that they're beyond prohibitively expensive.
| It's absolutely insane. I could never wrap my head around
| why... Who's buying it? I suppose impulse purchases
| because so many of them are hard to find otherwise, or
| you have to wait a while for batches?
| Scoundreller wrote:
| There's a ton of amazon.com stuff machine-reposted on
| amazon.ca (plus a $$$ Fedex/UPS fee to get it to you
| quickly after they receive it themselves in USA).
| obilgic wrote:
| lots of electronic components, modules, tools, etc...
| Things you get on Amazon for $10-15 range is basically
| $2-4 on AliExpress.
|
| If It's a big or $75+ item, usually prices are same as
| Amazon.
| blep-arsh wrote:
| A 16" 4K USB-C OLED display (with a touch sensor even).
| It works exactly as advertised and looks really nice but
| is rather useless for me, to be honest.
| colordrops wrote:
| Could you share a link to this please? I could definitely
| use this.
| levidos wrote:
| I'd be interested as well
| blep-arsh wrote:
| It's this one:
| https://aliexpress.com/item/1005004110616192.html
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| This sounds extremely useful to me! I'm building out a
| home assistant dashboard and would like a nice crisp
| display with touch.
|
| Why did you get it if it's useless for you? Not being
| critical at all, more so curious how it turned out to be
| a bad fit.
| happymellon wrote:
| I would guess it's something like this
|
| https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005670832686.html
|
| [Edit] Ah no, it says 4k in the title but the description
| is 1080p.
|
| Try this
|
| https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006407747752.html
| blep-arsh wrote:
| It's https://aliexpress.com/item/1005004110616192.html I
| think a regular IPS display would be way less susceptible
| to burn-in when used as a dashboard display, though. As
| for why I don't use it much: I thought it would be nice
| to have a second portable screen for my laptop instead of
| a proper desktop setup, but it's just mildly inconvenient
| to carry around and set up/pack away every time, and it
| offers way less usable screen area than a regular-sized
| display (unsurprisingly).
| OJFord wrote:
| Anything where you're actually ok with all the NEUVWY
| branded junk on Amazon but want it much cheaper in
| exchange for possibly slightly slower delivery and a
| horrible browsing experience.
| RuggedPineapple wrote:
| Or free if you're willing to put up with REALLY slower
| delivery. I ordered a 20kmAH battery with fold out solar
| panels off wish. 4 months later with it undelivered and
| tracking no longer active I requested and got a full
| refund. Two months later it finally arrived having gone
| the long way around the planet and held by Azerbaijani
| customs for several months.
| stjohnswarts wrote:
| did that with a showerhead, $80 on amazon, $30 on
| aliexpress, and it's actually quite well made (real
| metal) and seems to be great so far after a year. I'm
| sure there are a lot of duds though and it's caveat
| emptor, do at least a little research if you can find
| anything.
| rabuse wrote:
| Great, cheap flashlights with so many options for
| customization (Convoy).
| dave1010uk wrote:
| As well as Convoy, quite a few others also have official
| stores on AliExpress, like Sofirn, Lumintop, and Maxtoch.
| droopyEyelids wrote:
| I fond them to have the same prices and mostly the same
| items but temu often doesnt have the really nice version of
| a thing thats basically from a "brand" in china
|
| Here is today's random example:
| https://a.aliexpress.com/_mr2D3Y4
|
| Couldn't find anything like that on temu
| tauntz wrote:
| I get so much Temu spam that I finally gave up and decided
| to check them up. I compared 3 random items that the spam
| in Instagram was about - exact same items were 3x - 10x
| cheaper on AliExpress than Temu (~0.50 on Ali, ~5.0 on
| Temu, ~10 on Amazon). I haven't looked further but my
| impression was that they just ship stuff from AliExpress
| with a X price multiplier?
| rkangel wrote:
| How do you go about finding stuff on AliExpress that
| isn't (too) shit when it turns up? Or is that just the
| risk?
| FullyFunctional wrote:
| I've been on a physical iPhone keyboard quest since I got my
| first (4S). I have a pile of BT keyboards and one keyboard
| case. Still looking for something I would actually use. Indeed,
| my primary use case is for SSH (via Terminus).
| jbm wrote:
| I still have my iPhone 4S keyboard that I used stubbornly for
| months (along with the 4s itself). Every now and then I
| charge it and connect it to my PC via bluetooth, but even in
| landscape mode it was just too small for my sausage fingers.
|
| I don't understand how a portrait mode keyboard will be any
| better, but I hope to be wrong.
| mgh2 wrote:
| Video intro is too long, without much substance.
| slowhadoken wrote:
| Same. I haven't been filled with this much mixed emotion since
| slanket.
| andjmp wrote:
| The picture of the back of it made me think it was a keyboard
| separate from the case that plugs into the usb-c port with a
| long case that goes around it and has the buttons poke through.
| I could be wrong, but to do it that way makes more sense to me.
| The keyboard can't be the full width of the Pro Max if it is a
| separate piece that works with any model so maybe not.
| wannacboatmovie wrote:
| This will fail not because it's not a good idea, but because
| the implementation is flawed.
|
| Ryan Seacrest (yes _the_ Ryan Seacrest) bankrolled a startup 10
| years ago with an almost identical product. (They were sued out
| of existence by an already dying BlackBerry.)
|
| I remember listening to an interview where he explained they
| restricted the product to smaller iPhone models because user
| testing showed the product didn't work well in larger models -
| the increased weight of the larger phones caused too much of a
| bending moment whilst holding the phone by the extended bottom,
| making it extremely uncomfortable to handle and not conducive
| to typing. It was therefore restricted to the iPhones 5 & 6
| only.
|
| Recall QWERTY phones of yore were literally half the size or
| even smaller than the models this is targeting. I recently
| found an old BlackBerry cleaning out a junk drawer and was
| shocked by how small it was. It would fit _inside_ my current
| phone and remember these phones had removable, user-replaceable
| batteries.
|
| Not to mention this looks much cheaper quality than Seacrest's
| forgotten startup produced. Perhaps it's the children's toy-
| inspired design asthetic.
|
| This will fail.
| colordrops wrote:
| I wonder if you could make the key board overlap the lower
| portion of the screen, and when not in use, flip it down and
| around to the back of the phone. Would require some software
| and a clever physical mechanism that may not be easy or even
| possible though.
| dalemhurley wrote:
| Thank you. As soon as I read their website claiming to be
| "the first creator keyboard for iPhone", I was thinking
| "nope, there was one blackberry sued". Hopefully they will
| update their website and remove the false claim.
| wannacboatmovie wrote:
| Their website and marketing materials have a bit of a
| "Simpsons already did it" charm to them. Not to mention you
| will need specially designed pants to hold this roofing
| shingle-sized monstrosity. Maybe they can bring wearing
| overalls to the office into style.
| gambiting wrote:
| There is no financial or any other penalty for keeping the
| lie there, so it won't disappear.
|
| For years Omega used to write "the first and only watch on
| the Moon" on their Speedmaster watches, even though people
| kept pointing out over and over and over again that it's
| just simply not true - other watches were also used on the
| moon, including a Bulova Accutron when the nasa-issued
| speedmaster popped its crystal while on the lunar surface.
| So it was an obvious and easily provable lie, but for years
| it adorned a multi-thousand dollar watch. Omega did
| eventually change it with the new revision of the watch,
| but there is no reason to believe that it was _because_
| people were complaining about it.
| fsckboy wrote:
| did it get left on the moon?
| stjohnswarts wrote:
| It's a shame that something as basic as using a keyboard
| with a computing device can be copyrighted/patented. It's
| absolutely ridiculous.
| obilgic wrote:
| https://www.amazon.com/Typo2-Keyboard-for-
| iPhone-6/dp/B00O49...
| codingdave wrote:
| You might be right, but that failure was an entire decade
| ago. iPads and other tablets have gotten more normalized
| since then so people no longer have the expectation that all
| devices fit neatly in a pocket. Likewise, that may change the
| expectation of how a device fits in hands and balances.
|
| I'm not saying it will succeed - I agree that it looks
| awkward. But neither am I going to dismiss it just because
| something similar failed years ago. Times change,
| expectations change, and good product leadership will seek
| out old experiments and improve on the designs to overcome
| known problems.
| brianjking wrote:
| If this somehow incorporated the RIM Trackball as well somehow
| I'd already have ordered it. I have some real life nostalgia
| for Blackberry keyboards.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| I used one a few years back and it felt like magic in my
| hands. It was surreal to think how functional and efficient
| old tech was, yet we totally left it behind for something
| objectively worse. I get why we did, but wow, those were so
| much nicer to type on than a cold, flat, non-tactile surface.
|
| Despite that, modern screens have become remarkably accurate
| and responsive. Autocorrect is pretty good and makes up for a
| lot of the slop. I can often type without looking at the
| onscreen keyboard, and that's impressive in and of itself
| (not because of me, but because of the technology). The trade
| off still makes sense. Things were so much worse when we
| first left physical keyboards behind.
|
| But like you I do love the idea of a phone with a good
| physical keyboard, still.
| flkiwi wrote:
| Everyone is different. I can type 10x faster on a
| touchscreen keyboard (on a phone). I remember being issued
| a Blackberry at work after iPhones had firmly established
| themselves and being horrified about how slowly I had to
| type. Keep in mind I'd had numerous Blackberries before and
| was generally happy with them, but coming back to having to
| depress a physical chiclet combined with less reliable
| autocorrect = endless frustration.
|
| I don't begrudge pro-keyboard people their position, of
| course. It's a perfectly sensible preference (to the extent
| it's even my place to judge)!
| Cyclenerd wrote:
| Sounds like you're going to love this one:
| https://www.tindie.com/products/arturo182/bb-q20-keyboard-wi...
| eddywebs wrote:
| Now that the cat is out of the bag, it wouldn't be surprising
| to see quality knock offs of this on Aliexpress or sites like
| such for <=$50.
| ortusdux wrote:
| I wonder if there is room for a battery behind the keyboard?
| jonplackett wrote:
| Anyone else hoping this would be landscape?
|
| I feel like this is going to be ridiculously top heavy.
| xenospn wrote:
| This is such a beautifully designed website.
| catapart wrote:
| Neat! I like it enough to _almost_ buy it. I use an android as my
| daily driver, so it 's not a real productivity booster for me,
| but I would like to get my hands on it to see how it feels. I was
| a big fan of the Blackberry Key2 android phones (still use mine
| for dev work!), which included the full keyboard, so if this is
| anywhere close to that, it's probably pretty cool.
|
| Really the only thing stopping me is that this doesn't also
| include a touch sensitive volume rocker that would scroll the
| screen for me. That would really reiterate that focus on 'not
| touching the screen'. I know that's not something anyone has
| every developed before, nor is it something anyone promised. But
| it is both super feasible, and seems like a really killer
| feature, so if I'm buying a luxury item, I'd like it to have
| every feature I'm looking for instead of just most of them.
| Again, if an iPhone were my daily driver, that calculus would be
| different.
| dbmnt wrote:
| Space bar will scroll down, at least.
| keriati1 wrote:
| I find it awesome. Maybe it is targeted to my age group. Sadly I
| have an iPhone 13 and won't upgrade in the next 2-3 years.
| Otherwise I would order it right now.
| boomskats wrote:
| For anyone interested in something closer to the feel of the
| original Bold keyboard, the Fairberry[0] uses the keyboard from
| the BB Q10, which is excellent and can be had for about $5 a
| piece. They can look pretty decent[1][2] and are more easily
| removed.
|
| If anyone wants one PM me, I'll mail you a couple. I've got like
| 30 of them.
|
| [0]: https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry [1]:
| https://imgur.com/a/wYub8JD [2]: https://imgur.com/a/DLhlY7m
| vqbd wrote:
| Would it work on an iphone if the USB is adapted? I'm curious
| on getting one of these to work.
| boomskats wrote:
| I've not tried it, but if you check out the mainboard Readme
| [0] it mentions the possibility of a lightning port
| connector. I assume OTG is how the product OP linked to works
| too.
|
| [0]: https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry/blob/main/Document
| atio...
| vqbd wrote:
| Neat. I couldn't find PM info for you but Id like to get
| one to adapt it.
| dustmote-cowboy wrote:
| this looks great! would be interested in snagging a keyboard
| madethisaccount wrote:
| Looks pretty interesting! I'd like to purchase one to repurpose
| my old Nokia. Do you have dimensions by any chance? Couldn't
| find any PM Info from your account
| boomskats wrote:
| Ah, sorry - same handle on the big X or the other big HN-
| funded social network.
| jaustin wrote:
| I've been messing around with Q10 keyboards, MCUs and cases but
| not got to anything as good as a Fairberry - I'd love one or
| two if you have spares! Couldn't see details for private
| messaging you, but my profile has enough to email me on :) How
| is the software support? I'm using Blackberry Keyboard on my
| Key 2 and it's pretty good, does that work okay with Fairberry?
| Lorin wrote:
| How exactly is one supposed to PM, Twitter? Very interested as
| I deeply miss the Q10/KeyOne/Key2 experience.
| kzhe wrote:
| There's no PM function on HN, but I'm interested.
| dfjkdksjds789 wrote:
| I would love one of these! And then just try to attempt to make
| a case for the samsung s23.. or bite the bullet to go for
| fairphone if cant
|
| How should I message?
| indymike wrote:
| Needs function keys to be useful for my use case... but I love
| it! Also... love that the connection is not Bluetooth and is
| lightning or usb-c. Nice!
| kardianos wrote:
| Phones with physical keyboards:
| https://www.unihertz.com/collections/titan-series
|
| Unihertz Titans
| askvictor wrote:
| I love that Unihertz exists. As well as the physical keyboard
| series, there's the Jelly tiny-phone, and a phone with a built-
| in UHF walkie-talkie. Niche markets, but it's good that someone
| is thinking different.
| nyanpasu64 wrote:
| What on earth is a "creator keyboard"?
| brk wrote:
| That was my initial thought as well. The "creator" pitch and
| visuals immediately turned me off. It gave me the impression
| that this was kind of a gimmicky thing intended for an audience
| the polar opposite of what I would want.
| Minor49er wrote:
| It's for "content creators", which is the modern way of saying
| "people who post shit on the Internet"
| tomasreimers wrote:
| Would seriously consider buying this if it were a case with a
| back-sliding landscape keyboard. Something like:
|
| https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/fd8703ad0b0ec545ac98701c39...
| valianteffort wrote:
| I think the camera bumps kind of prevent this without turning
| the phone into a literal brick. Would have to be more like a
| clamshell/folio type case like with the iPads.
|
| That said the keyboard in OP looks so unbelievably fucking
| stupid and impractical I can't understand how it made it to
| production.
| devmor wrote:
| Doesn't have to cover the entire back of the camera. Just
| needs to use magsafe to attach.
| cududa wrote:
| I don't think magsafe is strong enough to support the
| entire phone on a keyboard
| happyopossum wrote:
| MagSafe supports my 'entire phone' bouncing around in my
| truck, and hanging on my headboard at night - it's more
| than strong enough to hold a phone to a keyboard.
| cududa wrote:
| Fair and good point!
| kridsdale1 wrote:
| I enjoy that your unwritten implication is that your
| headboard is banging around at night with equal amplitude
| to your truck.
| dylan604 wrote:
| humblebragging at its finest me thinks
| cweagans wrote:
| Maybe his truck has a really nice, comfy suspension that
| doesn't move much. Maybe he's humblebragging about his
| truck :P
| dbspin wrote:
| Is this something that has changed with the newer phones?
| I have an iPhone 12 pro, and MagSafe barely holds the
| wireless charging circle to the back of the phone.
| ClassyJacket wrote:
| Supporting the entire phone is the entire point of
| Magsafe, what else would you even use it for?
| dylan604 wrote:
| lightly holding the charger in place well enough to
| maintain contact yet easily removed if the cable is
| pulled without damaging cable or device. anything after
| that is bonus and outside the scope of magsafe's use. the
| magnets on my desktop multi-device charger do not meet
| that requirement as they are significantly stronger than
| Magsafe connections.
| johnwalkr wrote:
| It works great to support the entire weight of the phone
| on your desk or a dashboard, even when driving a fast car
| or riding a bike (unless you crash of course). But it's
| 1-2 orders of magnitude less force than required to
| resist pulling it out of your pocket.
| al_borland wrote:
| I use the MagSafe Apple wallet and often turn is sideways
| to give myself something to hold while I watch videos in
| landscape. A keyboard would work in much the same way, in
| terms of what it needs to support and where it's being
| held.
| valianteffort wrote:
| That wouldn't be very comfortable at all
| drudoo wrote:
| I had this as a case for the iPhone 4 (or 5S, can't remember).
| Was amazing but very bulky.
| cududa wrote:
| The Palm Pre was my dream phone
| lazzurs wrote:
| +1
|
| I can't get over how long it took Apple to adopt the same
| charging mechanism. It's depressing how good the Pre phones
| were and how long it's taken to get anywhere near close to as
| good.
| skyyler wrote:
| Still waiting for multi-tasking that works as well as it
| did on the Pre.
|
| Maybe one day.
| cududa wrote:
| For me, the X and the iOS version with it (can't remember
| which one), with the gesture swiping etc, finally was as
| good as (even perhaps better than) the Palm Pre
| JimDabell wrote:
| > I can't get over how long it took Apple to adopt the same
| charging mechanism.
|
| I knew somebody with a Pre and he had to have it replaced
| two or three times because the charging mechanism kept
| breaking. It's fairly common that somebody else will do
| something "first" but Apple will wait until the technology
| is mature enough to be reliable.
| soylentcola wrote:
| Mine got a hairline crack in the chassis next to the
| charging port, but the magnetic charger didn't have the
| same issue (obviously). There were plenty of issues with
| the Pre and immediate followups didn't do enough to solve
| them. That said, it was probably the last really
| "interesting" phone design I owned.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| Mine was the Droid 4.
|
| The only complaint I had about it was the MASSIVE bezels.
| They easily could have made the screen at least another inch
| bigger.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droid_4#/media/File:Motorola_D.
| ..
| al_borland wrote:
| I'm still upset with Leo Apotheker for killing WebOS at HP.
| It was our only real shot at a real 3rd platform that could
| have some legs. It's hard to comprehend how much damage he
| was able to do in only 10 months as CEO.
| hypercube33 wrote:
| It's wild how well palm worked with gesture and stylus
| input and ...the games were super fun I think because of
| directional physical buttons on the devices and you know,
| no pay to play games
| xt00 wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=M64U0XyLA-o&feat.
| .. Palm Pre in 2009 had a magnetic charging / mount thing
| super similar to what the iPhone only finally got a couple of
| years ago.. Palm Pre also had the nice card-based UI for
| killing apps while multitasking -- again something basically
| iOS only finally got after many years of annoying versions
| that all sucked compared to the card based mode they use now.
| webOS used webapps -- which at the time were not great.. but
| now tons of apps are effectively just webapps. So yea, Palm
| Pre was uber ahead of its time...
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| So ahead of its time! It was actually pretty nice to work
| with as a developer, too. They did some great work making
| webOS a viable platform. It's a real shame it didn't thrive
| in my opinion; it got a lot of things right.
| guyinblackshirt wrote:
| that and the Sharp Zaurus! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shar
| p_Zaurus#/media/File:Zauru...
| miek wrote:
| Ah my beloved Zaurus 5500 with the camera card. I still
| have many grainy photos I took with it. The slide out
| keyboard was fantastic, and like all devices, it too ran
| Doom.
| stevekemp wrote:
| You just made me check if I still have my rooting-
| instructions on my website, from back in the day when I
| wanted a reference.
|
| Turns out I do:
|
| https://steve.fi/docs/pre/
|
| It was a great phone, although I see on that page I said "not
| great, not terrible".
| razemio wrote:
| Same. I would have considered buying this product and the
| phone (!!!!) if it would have had a sliding mechanism. I miss
| all the pre phones. Had 1, 2 and 3. I am not joking, I was
| faster typing on the pre than on my keyboard since I never
| learned to use all my fingers to type.
| hanniabu wrote:
| I always loved the LG env2
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_enV2_%28VX9100%29
| worthless-trash wrote:
| How should they work around covering the camera ?
| richardw wrote:
| I got an HTC TyTN once. I hated that phone so much. Keyboard
| slipped out, which I guess worked. It was the phone that made
| me religiously stick with Apple all this time.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_TyTN
|
| Before that I had a Palm 5 PDA, which I loved. So interesting
| that you can add features and connectivity and still make the
| thing suck.
| Toutouxc wrote:
| That is interesting, I had a TyTN II and miss it to this day.
| The keyboard was pure bliss, the software was all there
| (browsing, messaging, photos, calendar, cool games -
| everything I now use my iPhone for). It had a nice chunk to
| it and made a cute sound when you slid the keyboard out. You
| could even run Android on it thanks to some nice people on
| XDA.
| soylentcola wrote:
| Yep, had that and a Touch Pro before getting a Pre and then
| finally (begrudgingly) accepting that there weren't gonna
| be any more higher-end phones with slide-out keyboards.
| philsnow wrote:
| I still have an HTC Dream in a drawer somewhere, thinking that
| someday I'll repurpose it as a bluetooth keyboard for something
| or other.
| timvdalen wrote:
| I miss my HTC phones
| lopis wrote:
| I thought it would be this as well. I dearly miss my 2013
| Xperia Mini Pro. But this? Looking at this product gives me
| wrist pain. The iPhone is about 250g. How can you comfortably
| hold it from the tip?
| Aardwolf wrote:
| Could use arrow keys and a headphone jack
| 1B05H1N wrote:
| Long long phone
|
| https://youtu.be/6-1Ue0FFrHY
| codexb wrote:
| First it was flip phones. Now BlackBerry has come full circle.
| Can't wait until windows phones and beepers make a comeback.
| boomskats wrote:
| That's it, I'm doing it. I'm making a BlackBerry keyboard for
| my flip phone.
| gabesullice wrote:
| History is a helix :)
| SushiHippie wrote:
| This made me realise how much I'd love a physical keyboard on my
| phone.
|
| But not like this, this is too long and I don't think one will
| have a pleasant typing experience with this.
|
| I thought about this one for a few minutes, but I can't think of
| a good way to integrate a keyboard in a smartphone case, that
| will give you the experience of a blackberry or similar.
|
| The slide-out ones that you could use in horizontal orientation
| are probably the best way I know of, but I wish something similar
| could be feasible in vertical orientation.
|
| EDIT: I just realised that the coolest way would be, if the phone
| display is only as large as the current phones minus the
| keyboard, and then a physical keyboard beneath it. The phone
| would be physically as large as the phones today and you would
| have a superior typing experience. Only problem would be watching
| videos or images which are all either 16:9 or 21:9 (or vice
| versa). And I'd personally trade the screen size for a physical
| keyboard
| TylerE wrote:
| I had an android phone with a physical keyboard. It was
| terrible. To avoid bloating the thing to a full on tablet the
| keys are so small it's practically impossible to not hit a
| whole cluster of keys, at least with my large-but-not-
| freakishly so hands. (e.g. average for a 6'ish adult male). To
| top it off the feel was horribly as the keys have about 0.1mm
| of travel.
| roywashere wrote:
| I had the T-mobile G1 with the slide out keyboard. Loved it!!
| Osiris wrote:
| I thought it was the G2? I had the one with the z-fold
| keyboard that slid out on the long edge (landscape). I
| loved that keyboard. I could crank out long emails error
| free, unlike every other touch screen keyboard, like the
| one I'm using right now.
| jldugger wrote:
| G1 was the original Tmo android phone with a slide out
| keyboard. G2 was the HTC Desire Z with the amazing
| z-hinge keyboard.
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| I had an N900, and the keyboard was reasonably good to type
| on. The keys were shaped in a way that made it easy to hit
| only the key you wanted, without hitting adjacent keys.
| bee_rider wrote:
| The slide out horizontal form factor is so obviously
| superior, I'm scratching my head wondering why people are
| so nostalgic for blackberry keyboards.
| xuhu wrote:
| Vertical keyboard allows using the phone with one hand.
| TylerE wrote:
| Also landscape results in either lots of wasted screen
| space or hard to read text. FOr text you want tall and
| narrow(ish), not ultra wide.
| Toutouxc wrote:
| I had a few slide out phones and a few BlackBerry-style
| phones (not BB but Nokia) and I had zero issues with
| either. You could type a novel on any of them.
|
| (I'm typing this on an iPad Mini and it's really sad how
| terrible the experience is compared to those tiny phones
| with tiny keyboards that actually worked)
| bee_rider wrote:
| An iPad seems closer to a laptop than a phone for this
| sort of thing--Bluetooth keyboard time. The iPad mini is
| in an odd spot size-wise, though.
| oslem wrote:
| Sounds to me that you just described the format of a
| BlackBerry!
|
| I could almost envision a clip-on (or magnetic?) keyboard that
| sits on top of your screen when you need it. Perhaps it could
| be taken off and stored on the back of your phone, much like a
| MagSafe battery on an iPhone.
| SushiHippie wrote:
| That could work too. A keyboard that you put on top of the
| screen, the only thing that would need to happen is that the
| operating system detects this and moves the content to the
| top, the same way as the software keyboard.
|
| Similar to what @walterbell suggested
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38872674
| andiareso wrote:
| This existed before a lawsuit
| https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/20/5325272/typo-keyboard-
| rev...
| SushiHippie wrote:
| This looks awesome, and they even mentioned that they
| were faster on the physicial keyboard. Although this
| design also has the problem with balance, but very likely
| not as much as TFA. I guess this design can't really work
| today as there is no home key on phones anymore, which
| they covered with the keyboard so it is not as long as
| the case in TFA.
| SushiHippie wrote:
| I just found this galaxy keyboard cover for the S8 and the
| phone really adjusted to the keyboard being there, this
| looks like the perfect solution. Why did they stop
| manufacturing this for their new phones :/ Someone in the
| reviews also mentioned that they borked it with a Software
| Update.
|
| https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/mobile-
| accessories/phones/...
| stemlord wrote:
| I like the magnetically attachable kb idea A LOT. Could also
| attach to the back of the phone when not in use to not live
| as a separate part. Seems like it'd be a pain in the ass to
| spend multiple seconds mounting the kb every time you need to
| type but I would actually keep it mounted and take it _off_
| when watching videos only. So it 'd remain there for 95% of
| the tkme.
| JBiserkov wrote:
| Check out the Sony Ericsson P910that had not 1, but 2
| keyboards that could be detached.
| https://gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_p910-pictures-846.php
| SushiHippie wrote:
| Woah, this looks so cool!
| walterbell wrote:
| _> the coolest way would be, if the phone display is only as
| large as the current phones minus the keyboard, and then a
| physical keyboard beneath it. The phone would be physically as
| large as the phones today and you would have a superior typing
| experience._
|
| iOS Reachability, but pinned to top of display?
|
| https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-reachability-iph1...
| SushiHippie wrote:
| Yes, and then there could be a keyboard flips around to the
| black part
| xp84 wrote:
| Kind of, though in my testing Reachability seems to just hide
| the bottom anyway rather than having the app resize.
|
| With things like this I just keep thinking about how much
| more potential we would have for innovation if handheld
| computers allowed the same kind of extensibility that all
| computers did 25 years ago. Today, only Apple, Google, or the
| OEM of an Android phone could enable such a behavior by
| explicitly providing an API for it (and explicitly blessing
| the software that uses it), so it just won't happen.
| pb7 wrote:
| >you would have a superior typing experience
|
| Would you? I don't think so. All to permanently lose 30%+ of
| your usual screen space on a device that you likely use to
| consume 90% of the time and input 10% of the time.
| SushiHippie wrote:
| I don't consume anything on my phone that would require that
| much vertical space, except occasionally a video someone sent
| me. And the touch keyboard bugs me so much that I really
| wouldn't care about losing ~1/3 of the screen.
| city41 wrote:
| I find it wild they've been mainstream now for 16 years and
| I still just absolutely hate them. I would gladly sacrifice
| screen for a good physical keyboard.
| dannyw wrote:
| Different people use devices in different ways.
|
| My phone is 80% emails, Slack, iMessage, Discord; 15% Google
| Maps, Uber, or Safari, and 5% YouTube.
|
| To each their own, but I realised content consumption is a
| seriously net negative on my happiness, productivity, and
| satisfaction with life, so I stopped.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| I think a sideways one would be most ergonomic, like a Backbone
| (https://playbackbone.com/products/backbone-one/) but with
| keyboard keys. Actually iOS supports a split style keyboard as
| well:
| https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/gSGW1OzKc1r6QWfVYO7g0rdfXuw=/1...
| tinytuna wrote:
| The new iPad pro's don't have that feature sadly
| carlosjobim wrote:
| You described the BlackBerry Priv.
| SushiHippie wrote:
| :o a slide-out keyboard in vertical orientation in 2015, I
| wish I had that phone
| dyates wrote:
| I used my Priv for five years, best phone I've ever had,
| barring some battery & heat issues. Showing people a
| normal-looking phone and then sliding out the keyboard was
| a fun party trick. If there were any modern phone like it I
| would buy it in a heartbeat.
| zoom6628 wrote:
| You are describing the BlackBerry passport. Other replies have
| some great ideas about magnetic keyboard. I was thinking why
| not Samsung Flip that splits the screen surface and uses
| rotating hinge so one side of the slab is screen or rotate for
| keyboard. That would be my ideal mobile. Success would come
| down to the strength and reliability of the hinge but this
| should be doable at a small increment in price.
| SushiHippie wrote:
| That's a really smart idea, though probably not feasible if
| you want to have a borderless touchscreen when not using the
| physical keyboard.
| lukeschlather wrote:
| I have a BlackBerry KeyTwo, which is basically that. It's
| great. If I could buy a new one with the latest Android I would
| do it in a heartbeat, the hardware is great and I'm sad you
| can't buy them anymore.
| SushiHippie wrote:
| Why have I never heard of all these touchscreen blackberries,
| they all look something I want. I really wish they'd still
| manufacture them or release android updates.
| edwcross wrote:
| Maybe you're luckier with English, but having recently tested a
| Uniherz Titan Pocket with physical keyboard, I just realized
| how my "past memories" left aside many details: typing accents
| and special symbols is slow; the absence of auto-complete on
| some long words is noticeable; the lack of emojis, the lack of
| a numeric keypad, having 3 or 4 modifier keys (to handle case,
| numbers, secondary functions, etc), all of these things I got
| so used to in virtual keyboards... I actually missed them more
| than I expected. This, plus the virtually unusable screen due
| to the lack of remaining real estate, made me rethink my
| memories.
|
| Granted, part of if is Android's fault, and part is the
| keyboard itself (the modifier keys in particular), but overall,
| it made me feel better using a touchscreen keyboard. I no
| longer have rose-tinted memories that make me complain so much
| about on-screen keyboards.
| SushiHippie wrote:
| Okay, sure, typing accents with this type of keyboard may be
| worse than what we currently have on smartphones. But as I
| mostly write English this would not be a huge problem to me,
| otherwise in German there are only aou/AOU and ss/Ss which
| don't get used that much, but have extra keys on the German
| keyboard layout (I don't expect this to be the case on a
| keyboard phone). Or can be replaced with ae,oe,ue and ss
| respectively.
|
| Auto-complete/-correction is something that I don't use
| often, but this doesn't need to be missing from a keyboard
| phone, as this could be added on the software side.
|
| Emojis are also something that I don't use often, but I get
| it that people may miss this, but this could also be added on
| the software side.
|
| I have something similar to the BlackBerry Key2 in mind [0].
| Haven't tried it myself, as I just learned about this through
| the comments. But the keyboard layout on the Key2 looks way
| better than the Unihertz, and the numerical keys are even in
| the same layout as a numeric keypad.
|
| I may as well have too many rose-tinted memories of this era,
| but I don't think that the things you mentioned would be
| showstoppers for me, but I definitely can understand that
| these will be blockers for other people.
|
| [0] https://m.media-
| amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/...
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Have a sudden urge to rewatch the _BlackBerry_ movie
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3icHg3N5ym0
| dylan604 wrote:
| This is in my queue as well. I've watched several of the
| TechBro movies and enjoyed several of them. Things like The
| Social Network and Super Pumped, they've all had interesting
| takes on the situations. The Tetris movie was decent as well.
| Recently watched one on the history of Google Maps that I was
| not familiar with the back story, but the name is slipping at
| the moment.
| guynamedloren wrote:
| I haven't seen the movie yet, but I just finished the book,
| Losing the Signal. Totally captivating story with so many
| powerful takeaways. I'd highly recommend it, even if you're
| already familiar with the BlackBerry story.
| codetrotter wrote:
| But the question everyone is asking is: Do they have a Dvorak
| version
| ugjka wrote:
| Dvorak for thumb typing?
| codetrotter wrote:
| Gotta flex them thumbs in alternating rhythm, you know.
| doodpants wrote:
| Makes as much sense as QWERTY for thumb typing. In either
| case you're not touch-typing, so the only advantage is visual
| familiarity of layout. (As a Dvorak user, I prefer desktop
| keyboards in which it's possible to pry off and rearrange the
| keycaps to match.)
| gamedna wrote:
| Love the idea, but its a missed opportunity - some wheels and it
| could have been a skateboard too.
|
| With all seriousness, keyboard should have flipped or slid out so
| its more compact. I can't see that in peoples pockets.
| mintplant wrote:
| I was looking around recently to see if I could find some kind of
| attachable physical thumb-typing keyboard / landscape phone
| holder combo for my Pixel, after convincing myself that my GPD
| Win 2 handheld computer was really, truly dead [0]. Couldn't find
| anything, so now I'm rather jealous of the iPhone crowd seeing
| this today.
|
| [0] Can't recommend GPD products - they're just not made to last,
| and rely on hacked-up Windows installations to drive them. Which
| is a shame, because the Win 2's form-factor and cursor control
| scheme are basically perfect, and also seemingly unique.
| MetaWhirledPeas wrote:
| One that opens down the middle like a cabinet would be fun to
| see. One half of the keyboard on each side. I mean, I wouldn't
| use it, but it would be fun to see.
| Sweepi wrote:
| What would personally sell me on a keyboard for my iPhone:
| getting the missing keys (home, end, arrow keys)
| drakonka wrote:
| What I want is a physical smartphone keyboard with nine keys. The
| one with three letters per key. I've never been faster and more
| accurate at typing on my phone than when these were a thing. I
| have pretty small hands, but even for me those full-size mini-
| keyboards are too imprecise to make them much better than a touch
| keyboard.
| huytersd wrote:
| I don't believe you. There's no way you type faster with up to
| three taps needed per letter. What a disgusting monstrosity
| those things were.
| poyu wrote:
| I could easily type blindly on those, the Nokia days
| ClaraForm wrote:
| Seconded, I could text from within my pocket if needed.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| If the claim is
|
| > I've never been faster and more accurate at typing on my
| phone than when these were a thing.
|
| It's easy to believe the accuracy claim (after all, you can
| feel the keys and there's fewer of them) while doubting the
| speed claim (since you have to perform 1-3x the number of
| keypresses to get the same result).
| phinnaeus wrote:
| It's one press per key, even if the letter you want is
| the third letter.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| Well now I feel dumb. So it's like Minuum but way
| earlier. That's pretty cool, then, and I can definitely
| see how it would be faster.
| cpeterso wrote:
| I loved Minuum's one-dimensional keyboard! The app
| disappeared from the iOS App Store, but looks like it
| still exists for Android in the Google Play Store (last
| updated in 2017). Did the developer go out of business?
|
| http://minuum.com/
| spiderice wrote:
| It's especially easy to doubt it if you don't understand
| how t9 keyboards work :)
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| You didn't tap three time. You type out a few button that
| contained the letters for the first few letters of the word
| and then jabbed the "next" button until it gave you the right
| word. You could do a very long word with just a few
| keypresses.
| Mogzol wrote:
| You don't need three taps per letter, they had T9 [1], you
| only had to hit the key with the letter you wanted once, it
| predicted which letter you actually wanted, and worked
| surprisingly well. Once you got used to it you could type
| messages very quickly.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T9_(predictive_text)
| freedomben wrote:
| Yes exactly. Also three taps per letter was _worst case_
| scenario. 1 /3 of the letters were only one tap, and 1/3
| were two taps.
| addandsubtract wrote:
| Ackshully, worse case is four taps for S or Z
| throwaway284534 wrote:
| Lookup a stenographer's keyboard. There is a learning curve
| but a chorded keyboard can exceed typical typing speeds. I
| imagine a T9 isn't too different in this regard.
| tetraca wrote:
| I use one. I don't think that it would be a good substitute
| for this use case. You can try and do steno on your phone
| with Dotterel but it's not a good experience - you're
| better off using a swiping keyboard. I've not used a T9
| system in my life, but I can imagine that it's a system
| that would let you input anything just typing with your
| thumbs. To have a good time doing steno, you have to
| exercise all of your fingers on both your hands. That's not
| quite so nice on your phone.
| yungporko wrote:
| i'd say predictive text/t9 was way faster than any other
| phone input method ever for texting. nothing else comes close
| imo, not even blackberry keyboards (unless you need more fine
| control over capitalisation and punctuation and stuff e.g
| work emails)
| adamomada wrote:
| I've used them all and THE fastest and most accurate entry
| on mobile by far was the psuedo-t9 keyboard on the
| Blackberry 7130. It was so good that it was frustrating to
| use the full keyboard on later Blackberry models.
|
| I wonder how many people actually experienced this keyboard
| in the world, perhaps only in the thousands?*
|
| Seems they had a name for it, SureType:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BlackBerry_products#F
| i...
|
| edit: ah I see it was used on other more popular models,
| too. Blackberry Pearl users should chime in!
| porsager wrote:
| It doesn't even need to be physical - You should definitely
| give Type Nine a try ( https://typenineapp.com ) - (disclaimer
| - I'm the author). There are some promo codes below so you can
| try it out:
|
| I've used this since 2014 when I made the first version, and I
| have yet to meet anyone typing faster with the stock iPhone
| qwerty keyboard.
|
| 7AMYNPKN63KY EMMHTLRA9399 Y4TPAXMJFHLL 4F3Y4JJ3RHME
| YREJF6L4TYE7 KWM9LRRXJEXW Y6JJRM99NYLM KRJXYPLE666L
| 43Y3EANXXW9F 9H99XY3FTT7L
| drakonka wrote:
| This looks great! I'd try it for sure if I was on iPhone. Do
| you have any plans to release this for Android as well at
| some point?
| spiderice wrote:
| Looks awesome! I've missed t9 typing ever since I got my
| first smart phone. I just bought your keyboard.
|
| Question: When I try to type the word "a" (by pressing the
| ABC key then space) it defaults to "c". Will it relearn that
| I actually want to type "a" if I correct it enough? No idea
| why it's defaulting to "c".
| cpeterso wrote:
| Type Nine looks awesome! I just bought it. I've become
| increasingly frustrated with the default iPhone keyboard and
| looking for something more reliable and deterministic.
|
| Your onboarding tutorial was excellent. Much more thorough
| and polished than I expected. One issue: I advanced through
| all the tutorial screens until the end of the "manual"
| tutorial, but it wasn't obvious that was the end because
| there was no "next tutorial" or "quit tutorial" button after
| watching the "see how" animation.
|
| Feature request: include emojis in the suggestions like the
| iOS keyboard does: when you type "heart", it offers a
| suggestion to replace the word "heart" with the heart emoji.
|
| I see there's a T9 keyboard app (RetroBoard) for the Apple
| Watch. Have you looked into supporting Type Nine on Apple
| Watch?
| cpeterso wrote:
| Also, the suggestions seem to be confused by contractions
| when swiping, defaulting to "didnt" or "doesnt" even when
| the list of suggestions includes "didn't" or "doesn't".
|
| The lists of suggestions also include a lot of non-English
| or nonsense words (like "diwn" and "dizoo"), even though
| I'm using an English dictionary.
|
| The punctuation screen doesn't include some punctuation
| available on the Apple keyboard like (parentheses). It
| would be nice if there was a second screen for less-common
| punctuation like how the emoji screen works.
| porsager wrote:
| Oh - Just checked, you're right these words are reversed
| in the default dictionary. They'll be right there in
| front the first time you use them thought, and I'll look
| into seeing if I can find a good rule for improving the
| preference by default.
|
| The dictionaries are compiled from large known corpuses,
| wikipedia and movie subtitles, to ensure most words are
| available, but it does also mean that some weird words
| sneak in. That shouldn't matter much since it's very
| quick to adjust to your usage, and due to the usage
| sorting the weird words should never come first.
|
| About the punctuation you just need to scroll the symbols
| window to get to the rest ;)
| porsager wrote:
| Thanks a lot! That's some good feedback. (you wrote in the
| app support chat too right?)
|
| Wrt. Apple Watch, there is unfortunately no support for
| custom input support, so it has to be a weird hack where
| you type in one app and copy paste to another or such
| shenanigans. At least it was the last time I checked.
| xp84 wrote:
| Thanks! Insta-bought this. Really anything that can spare me
| the hell of Apple's keyboard that is possessed by Satan when
| I attempt to try swiping on it. No amount of resetting
| keyboard settings or anything else can stop it from turning a
| swipe of "you" into "your" literally every single time.
| dabluecaboose wrote:
| Sounds like what you're looking for is the Qin F22 Pro[1]
|
| It's got a cult following among dumbphone and dumb-er-phone
| enthusiasts (think Lightphone, Punkt, etc) and has personally
| tempted me, but I'm put off by it being a Xiaomi product and
| haven't been able to decide if that hardware is safe enough for
| me to consider using after a ROM swap.
|
| [1]
| https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804386537909.html?gateway...
| rckt wrote:
| I would understand pros of the physical keyboard if there was no
| slide to type feature. But it's there for some time already and I
| don't see how having a physical keyboard is going to be
| beneficial.
|
| The issue with typing on touchscreens is not only about keyboard
| but also about the whole UX around it. All these short/long taps,
| struggling to make selections etc.
|
| I see this product as a gimmick.
| joshstrange wrote:
| It doesn't support MagSafe so it's not something I would buy but
| it's very interesting. If it supported MagSafe and was only $100
| I'd probably would have bought it just to try it out. Yes, it
| would make my 15 Pro Max a monster but it would be interesting to
| try.
|
| That it plugs into the USB-C port is both expected and worrisome
| (also none of the product photos show this for some reason). I
| know it has the whole case to help but I'd be worried about
| putting strain on the USB-C port while your hands are down on the
| keyboard. Again, the case will help but you are absolutely adding
| strain to the port, the whole phone's weight is on it aside from
| what the case can help relieve which can't be much since it's not
| rigid. It's "Liquid Silicon" but since the phone plugs into the
| USB-C/Lightning in the bottom you probably have to first plug the
| phone in, then pull the case over the top/sides of the phone
| meaning its ability to reduce strain is extremely limited
| ianburrell wrote:
| It should be a MagSafe device instead of case. It could attach
| to the back and stick out the bottom. Even better is that there
| are third-party "Magsafe" cases and adapters for other phones.
|
| It should also be Bluetooth. Which is annoying to pair but
| easier to put on. My guess is that people would put the
| keyboard on when they need it instead of putting in case.
| gregsadetsky wrote:
| the launch video says that magsafe is supported for charging
| (see here [0]), but that magsafe accessories (that assume a
| magnet on the other side...?) are not supported
|
| [0] https://youtu.be/e2n2ftM-MwI?t=443
| joshstrange wrote:
| I think they just mean wireless charging is supported but a
| MagSafe mount/holder won't work because the case doesn't have
| the proper MagSafe "magic" in it (that ring you see on a
| clear iPhone case).
| BillinghamJ wrote:
| It will work - the magnetic interaction happens through the
| plastic, just will be very slightly weaker than one with
| additional magnets due to the tiny gap. The video shows it
| mounted on a MagSafe charger
| racl101 wrote:
| I hate the iPhone virtual keyboard. It sucks. I would try this.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I love (/s) how heavily the marketing is aimed at being a
| trendsetter and using it as yet another status symbol. This plays
| out to me louder than functionality of its actual purpose.
| Spending time on Founder's Edition and badges just screams with a
| megaphone at me in stomach churning ways.
|
| Clearly, I'm not the audience for the branding, but a smart
| device I would be interested in if marketed for adults.
| elzbardico wrote:
| I solved this issue by getting a 13" macbook air as my second
| computer. It is small and lightweight enough to be comfortable to
| use as a personal browsing and communication device in the
| situations where you'd probably be using your phone and trying to
| type too much on it like long group chats with friends. it is the
| ultimate portable typing machine for me when I don't want to be
| bound to a desk.
| xpe wrote:
| You whip out your Air during social occasions for some quick
| texting?
| swozey wrote:
| I need to get him and my dad who whips out his iPad to take
| photos together
| elzbardico wrote:
| Not for quick texting. Only for extended sections at home or
| when flying. On social occasions I keep my texting to the
| bare minimal required.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Curious - do folks not use swiftkey-like onscreen keyboards? I
| feel like I'm legions faster using this style on a phone vs
| tapping. I get preferring a physical keyboard if you're tapping,
| but I can't imagine going back once I got used to swiping.
| afandian wrote:
| There's a bit of a trope that people who want hardware
| keyboards in the era of touchscreens are idiots. I'm one of
| them. There's a huge number, and therefore diversity of mobile
| users. Some of us have different preferences to the mainstream.
|
| I feel crippled typing on my iPhone. It takes ages to type and
| correct messages. I often can't get my pass code right first
| time. And I remember that typing was never an issue on a
| blackberry.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| > There's a bit of a trope that people who want hardware
| keyboards in the era of touchscreens are idiots.
|
| To be clear, I wasn't implying that in the slightest. I was
| just curious if folks who say they prefer physical keyboards
| have tried swipe typing. I didn't really like "tap on glass"
| typing either, but once I got used to swipe typing it was a
| "I'll never go back" moment for me.
| afandian wrote:
| Sorry it seemed that way, it wasn't aimed at your reply.
| Personally I've tried both swiping and tapping. I feel out
| of control with both. FWIW, I had to make 7 corrections
| typing this comment.
| latexr wrote:
| The default iOS keyboard supports that.
| zakki wrote:
| I wonder how they compensate COG movement. I guess iPhone will be
| heavier while typing.
| I_Am_Nous wrote:
| >Being first has its perks: >Special founder's badge >Serial
| number >Exclusive VIP support
|
| Are they implying you get a low serial number as an early
| adopter, or are they going to stop putting serial numbers on
| future hardware?
| InCityDreams wrote:
| >>Exclusive VIP support
|
| You pay extra to be a beta tester for the plebs that follow?
| johnhamlin wrote:
| I really want to love this. I've been asking for something like
| it for years. I feel like I'd also need a low-mounted popsocket,
| or I can already feel my pinkies breaking from the weight
| supporting this.
| xgl5k wrote:
| Steve Jobs probably rolling in his grave seeing this lol
| jasoneckert wrote:
| Does anyone own this and can comment on the experience?
| thesdev wrote:
| No, it has been just announced, first shipment happens in
| February.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Maybe. This has a very over hyped Kickstarter feel to it.
| koenraad wrote:
| Fuck 'content creation' on mobile phones. I like mobile phones
| for two reasons, 1. because it is a phone and 2. because I can
| use it for authentication stuff. The rest is all focused on
| consuming and giving away your data.
| ianseyer wrote:
| cool
| SalmoShalazar wrote:
| I very quickly went from "that's dumb" to "how do I order this?",
| I have despised touch screen keyboards since they became a thing.
| I'm typing on one now, and I wish I wasn't.
|
| However I'm still on an iPhone 12 which is not supported.
| Hopefully when I upgrade they'll have a superior version
| available. The ergonomics look goofy but I'm sure you adapt over
| time.
| jagger27 wrote:
| Buried deep in the FAQ, you have to take it out of the case to
| use wired CarPlay on USB-C iPhones. That is a real bummer.
|
| > Clicks for iPhone 15 Pro (and models that use USB-C) only
| support fast charging while Clicks is on your iPhone. At this
| time, the USB-C connector will not allow for both Clicks to be
| connected to the iPhone and allow for data and charging. This
| means using wired CarPlay or transfer data will require you to
| remove your iPhone from Clicks. Listening to music via Bluetooth
| and connecting to CarPlay wirelessly will still work with Clicks
| installed.
|
| https://www.clicks.tech/faqs
| jclardy wrote:
| Neat idea, but at $140, being phone specific, and just the
| ergonomics of holding the phone from the bottom when it is now an
| extra 2 inches taller all sound pretty bad.
|
| Also concerning that no where in the landing page does it specify
| how it connects, or show an example of how "easy" it is to put on
| and take off (On second glance - it is shown in passing 2 minutes
| into the 10 minute long intro video.)
|
| Not to mention being called "clicks" but no audio demo of what
| the keys actually sound like?
| w-ll wrote:
| Somebody bring back the OG Motorola Droid slide keyboard and I
| will switch to Android.
| ThinkBeat wrote:
| Blackberry 8700 is the gold standard for a phone with a keyboard.
| It is the most productive cellphone I have ever owned.
|
| Phone calls, text message and email is what it did well. And it
| did exceedingly well.
|
| The thumbwheel was just the right spot to quickly scan an email.
|
| The keyboard is as good as they get.
|
| The operating system was built to do exactly this and not that
| much more.
|
| It is really hard to convey how great it was, without being able
| to offer up demos. I have bought keyboard add ons for iPhone and
| Android as they have become available and usually died quickly.
|
| I even tried to get a company going to create a "blackberry look
| alike" on Android but in the end I didnt get financing and making
| Android be classic BB is not easy.
|
| It was not good for games, web browsing, apps in general, but
| that didn't matter because it did what I needed it to do
|
| BB from then on was a sinking ship, b/c they figured they would
| add all the features from the iPhone and Android to it. And
| eventually released an Android phone.
|
| They lost focus on what the existing customers really loved.
| jiveturkey wrote:
| > They lost focus on what the existing customers really loved.
|
| That's unfair. There was a bit (or a lot) of innovator's
| dilemna going on.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| I mean, in fairness they did spend several key years post-2007
| with their head in the sand pretending that iPhone didn't exist
| or wasn't a threat and running the "tools not toys" ad
| campaign.
|
| It was really the rise of BYOD policies that killed blackberry
| I think-- they had enthusiastic fans but it was a pretty small
| group relative to those who would pick the iPhone given a
| choice.
| babypuncher wrote:
| I worked in IT at Gartner at the time and by 2010 there was
| tons of internal pressure to allow people to use iPhones and
| Androids instead of company-issued BlackBerries.
|
| If RIM was willing to downsize and continue serving the niche
| of users that just want a good keyboard for messaging and
| don't care about content consumption or apps, they could
| still be around today making products for that niche. But
| things don't really work that way in a market that only
| rewards perpetual growth.
| babypuncher wrote:
| > They lost focus on what the existing customers really loved.
|
| The problem is that iPhone and Android were stealing users from
| that pool. Lots of BB users loved the physical keyboard, but I
| feel many of them were fairly easily lured away by the greater
| functionality offered by touchscreens. BB actually tried to
| hold on to this niche for quite a while, they didn't launch
| their touchscreen-centric BlackBerry 10 line until 2013.
|
| I regularly miss having a physical keyboard on my phone, but
| I'm not sure I would give up things like good web browsing,
| watching videos, or rich maps to make it happen. People are
| ultimately willing to downgrade their experience in a few
| activities like messaging in order to make other activities
| like web browsing actually viable.
| ajsnigrutin wrote:
| There was a time, when we had both... but somehow android
| phone manufacturers stopped being inventive and stopped
| making different phones.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Desire_Z <- this was an
| android phone with a keyboard, and far from the only one.
| Geezus_42 wrote:
| I had the G1, and loved it, but I wanted that phone because
| it looked so much nicer.
| babypuncher wrote:
| I remember these quite well. Their Achilles' heel was
| durability, a recurring problem with any smartphone design
| that has moving parts.
|
| I think that if people kept buying these in significant
| enough numbers, manufacturers would still be making them.
| ajsnigrutin wrote:
| But you're not given a choice at all. Look at sd card
| slots for example... cheap storage expansion, a standard
| not that long ago, but at one moment in time, pretty much
| all the flagship phones lost that feature. It wasn't an
| option, where you could buy a model without an sd card or
| one with the slot for $20 more, but the slot was gone,
| and the only phones with sd card slots were either old
| and shitty or some chinese noname store brand. Same for
| the headphone jack and user replacable batteries. If you
| wanted a fast phone with a good camera, you were stuck
| with either iphones, google nexus/pixel or samsungs (back
| then also sonys), and none of them have slots or jack
| ports anymore.
| crtasm wrote:
| A couple years before that the Blackberry 9900 added a
| touchscreen to their standard form factor and even without
| using the touch feature it was more than usable to browse the
| web on. The small click/touchpad was a delight to use.
| scrumper wrote:
| Don't discount that unified inbox either. What an incredible
| thing, never seen anything like it implemented a tenth as well
| since.
| computershit wrote:
| I agree, but from an operator perspective I do not miss
| dealing with BES, not in the slightest.
| guyinblackshirt wrote:
| That unified inbox was a real beauty, combined with all of
| the features described in the parent. Such a shame we still
| have nothing close to it.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| Keep in mind that the Blackberry existed in a different era
| where technology was designed to help and empower the user
| instead of exploiting them and wasting their time. It was a
| tool rather than an advertising billboard and/or slot machine.
|
| A lot of the problems that make the use-cases you mention more
| difficult/annoying on modern phones are someone's business
| model and have little to do with actual form-factors or lack of
| physical keyboards. E-mails/texts/etc _can_ be made more
| efficient on today 's devices - it's just that it's more
| profitable not to.
| nittanymount wrote:
| this site has no valid ssl cert, browser does not allow to visit
| :-)
| Nevermark wrote:
| Can I get one for an iPad Pro? :)
|
| Or a full size flip-phone version, for my friends who think those
| were the golden years? With all the emoji keys?
|
| (Yes, these would be prank gifts. But such great ones!)
| amelius wrote:
| I'd prefer a keyboard that covers part of the screen (and
| interoperates with the OS to mark that part of the screen
| unused), and operates over Bluetooth or the USB-C connector in
| the bottom.
| nasretdinov wrote:
| I'm kinda surprised that no-one has mentioned that languages
| other than English exist. Virtual keyboards, while a bit clunky,
| allow to easily switch input languages, and most of the world for
| whom English isn't their native language use this feature very
| very often. Physical keyboards for laptops solve this issue by
| having different keyboard layouts for different languages (and
| are usually geared towards that language, with English being just
| possible to use in addition to the primary language), but for
| smartphone screens the keyboard is just too small, it won't
| realistically be a good idea.
|
| I'm saying this as a person who loves physical buttons and
| everything quite a lot, but for any non-English user this
| keyboard would be s non-starter
| andix wrote:
| I'm writing in different languages, they are all based on the
| latin alphabet and I never switch keyboard layouts.
|
| Especially the switched Y/Z keys on some layouts are hard to
| handle. And the French layout with different AZWQM positions is
| just pure madness.
|
| There are a few layouts that include most latin characters on
| one layout. A lot of European layouts have most latin
| characters somewhere (with the help of dead keys or AltGr).
| There are also international English keyboard layouts, although
| I will never get used to the small return key of the US
| keyboards, why make it so small if it's even one key short (101
| vs 102)? :D
|
| For people who write in different alphabets (cyrillic, arabic)
| this might be a completely different story.
| jiehong wrote:
| Exactly.
|
| At the extreme end, there are older Chinese users who often
| hand write Chinese on the screen to write a sentence, one
| character at a time.
|
| In the middle there are many things, like Latin but unusual
| layout such as French bepo, or Chinese input methods based on
| shapes, or Japanese kana, or the old T9 that I still see some
| people using (probably to have bigger letter targets).
|
| A touch screen really ease custom input methods!
| xnzakg wrote:
| > or Japanese kana
|
| 12-key kana flick input is my favorite input method for use
| on a touchscreen. Pretty fast and accurate.
|
| Here's a video showing how it's used:
| https://youtube.com/watch?v=V2B9dgjbQxk
| nojs wrote:
| For Chinese, most people in Taiwan use zhuyin which would be
| difficult on this keyboard without any labels.
| LAC-Tech wrote:
| Not an issue if all if you know how to touch type and aren't
| reliant on the labels for the keys.
|
| I'm typing this very message on a keyboard that has no labels
| at all, it's all muscle memory.
| nasretdinov wrote:
| My native language uses cyrillic alphabet. I can also type on
| a regular keyboard without looking, however Cyrillic has
| quite a few more letters than English (33 vs 26 in English in
| my language), so the keyboard needs to allow that.
| andix wrote:
| I once tried a typing speed test on my iPhone and compared it to
| my physical keyboard I always type with on the PC. I think on the
| on screen keyboard (OSK) I was reaching over 60% of the speed of
| the full sized keyboard on the PC.
|
| This was really surprising for me, as also the precision was not
| really worse than on the PC.
|
| I have to admit that I can't type perfectly with 10 fingers, but
| reach around 350-500 keystrokes per minute, which is far beyond
| average.
|
| So the OSK is fine for me, as long as the UI is handling the
| missing screen space well, and doesn't provide a bad UX, like
| jumping scroll positions or covering important buttons by the
| OSK.
| LoveMortuus wrote:
| I would love to see a return of physical keyboards on phones.
|
| But I do feel that it might just be a niche.
|
| Since I think most people have already gotten used to all display
| phones, there were even some phones in the past that tries
| removing the volume buttons and such.
| thom wrote:
| It's incredibly rare that I can type even a single sentence
| correctly on the iPhone. In that one it came out 'in' and not
| 'on' for example. In that one I typed sample not example. I got
| that last one right! I see the arguments from both sides but it's
| a real shame the design space of smartphones has become so
| conservative. Such intensely personal devices deserve to be more
| varied. If I thought I could build some sort of cyberdeck with a
| 5G radio and reliable Bluetooth for a headset I think I might get
| a kick out of that. And then I'd probably go back to the iPhone
| because it works better and has better battery life. "Probanly".
| jrmg wrote:
| You may know this and not like it, or find it doesn't work for
| you, but on the off chance you don't: just keep going.
| Autocorrect will often step in and correct things one or two
| words later when it works out that letters near where you
| tapped make a more plausible sentence than the ones you
| actually tapped.
| thom wrote:
| Yeah, I mean with autocorrect. Without that I don't think I
| could type a single word tbh. The AI they rolled out in the
| last year or so has been noticeably better too, but still my
| thumbs are clearly not in the normal human range.
| rtpg wrote:
| I think iOS changed its behavior like this in the past year
| or two and it's so frustrating after years of per-word
| autocorrect. Like having the text flow around randomly while
| typing out your sentence, seeing the text be _entirely
| wrong_, and just having to pray that the text will end up
| right at the end of the action.
|
| I don't know what is better here but honestly per-word
| predictions were way better for my usecases.
| 4death4 wrote:
| This was true for me until the latest iOS release. The new
| autocorrect is markedly better. It used to be that at least 30%
| of _words_ (not even sentences!) were misspelled. Now it 's
| pretty rare. I think the auto-correct on the iPhone is even
| better than how I type on a laptop keyboard. Pretty crazy!
| lynndotpy wrote:
| This was true for me until the latest iOS release, but then
| it got _worse_ for me. The inline predictions were especially
| problematic, but they added a toggle in the settings for it.
|
| I think this puts me in the market for a keyboard like this
| msoad wrote:
| Sometimes I feel hacker news audience either have a very
| unique use case with their software/hardware or they are
| living in an alternative universe. The latest iOS keyboard
| is absolutely better than anything I've tried. I am
| sometimes shocked that it could autocorrect what I
| initially typed because it was so far off! And I have big
| fingers!
| k_bx wrote:
| I'm also waiting on ChatGPT-like experience, their (Whisper)
| text-to-speech is amazing, including my native Ukrainian.
| ecshafer wrote:
| The worst part about iOS autocorrect is that it will change
| _previous_ words and it drives me wild. So even though I had
| typed a word correctly, I am 2-3 words ahead and it decides
| to just change the previous word making the sentence
| nonsense.
|
| Also the constant autocorrection of swearing is really
| annoying.
| 93po wrote:
| You can fix the swearing part if you google it
| ecshafer wrote:
| Having to manually white list every word you want to be
| able to type isn't a great solution. Androids autocorrect
| automatically adds words to the dictionary as you type
| and hit allow.
| 93po wrote:
| Agreed but figured I'd mention it
| richard___ wrote:
| Yeah, you're the only one. It's easy to type on iphones bud
| thom wrote:
| Shame there's not always something worth typing though.
| npunt wrote:
| First thought is weight distribution & stability; thumbs and
| fingers at the bottom 2-3" of a 9" long top-heavy 300g+ weight
| seems problematic. They talk about how to hold it in this video
| [1] but don't address the typing experience.
|
| My guess is you have to grip a bit harder than you normally would
| to keep it stable, and this may impact the typing speed (vis-a-
| vis old school BB). Cameras make iPhones pretty top-heavy.
|
| I don't see the weight of this Clicks case, I'd guess it's at
| least the same density as the iPhone (~32g/in height) so minimum
| of +70g, and possibly more like +100-120g.
|
| Nevertheless I love the chutzpah of this device.
|
| [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HuCsLY5fQg
| merelysounds wrote:
| I'm a fan of hardware keyboards, I enjoyed my HTC Dream (T-mobile
| G1), for me smartphones and tactile keys are a good match.
|
| That being said, this product doesn't look good - it seems
| uncomfortable to hold. The keys are low, the device gets
| comically tall and I suppose significantly unbalanced or top
| heavy.
|
| Related to that, I'm missing a video showing a longer typing
| session, or an unaffiliated review.
| busymom0 wrote:
| I feel like this would be a lot more popular amongst devs if it
| had extra keys which are often used for things like coding and
| SSH.
| VikingCoder wrote:
| I really want a programmer-friendly physical keyboard for Android
| phones, which is suitable to holding (not needing resting on a
| table).
|
| I've got a Pixel 3 right now, but I'd be willing to change phones
| if one worked very well with a physical keyboard.
|
| Or maybe I just have to buy one of those GPD Win 4 devices, or
| the Ayaneo Slide...
| twism wrote:
| I've tried all kinds of portable physical keyboards but for
| programming on android you can't beat Hackers Keyboard
| https://github.com/klausw/hackerskeyboard
|
| I've got a fork working with Android 14
| VikingCoder wrote:
| Yeah, I know. I was thinking of linking to an image of
| Hacker's Keyboard and saying "with this layout," lol.
| wenc wrote:
| Looks nice but doesn't fit in pocket.
|
| A less elegant but practical option for note taking in class or
| writing docs is a portable folding keyboard for iPhones, like
| this iClever Bluetooth Keyboard
|
| https://a.co/d/cibFqle
| dimgl wrote:
| Would this be faster than swiping? Because I basically only type
| with swiping.
| pilgrim0 wrote:
| To make mobile computing really ergonomic the better direction is
| getting rid of the screen altogether, replacing it with AR
| goggles. Then whatever physical device remains as a companion can
| be fully dedicated to input. This is a future I'd love to see,
| since it would really allow me to work from anywhere.
| sreejithr wrote:
| Lol NO!
| tamimio wrote:
| This is a bit long.. also, I will loose the ability to use my
| rugged case or any case for that matter, and with that length
| it'll be more prone to getting dropped (or stolen if you put your
| phone in your back pocket), and if you decide to keep it home and
| only use it when you are comfortable on your couch, you still
| need to get into the hassle of attaching it and even removing
| your case, risk damaging your lightning port from how frequent
| you will do it, all that to use it for .. a minuet of texting? I
| don't think so. Unless the physical keyboard is properly designed
| and integrated within the phone form factor, it will be another
| gimmicky toy you will only use it for few weeks at max.
| person3 wrote:
| I can type like 45 WPM on my phone keyboard right now. I'm
| definitely faster on a full size keyboard, but I'm not sure if I
| would be faster on this small keyboard. I know a lot of people
| wanted keyboard like this when the iPhone first came out, but now
| with a lot of practice using mobile keyboards, I'm not sure it's
| needed.
|
| One of the main arguments for hardware keyboards was you could
| type without looking. I don't really look at my phone keyboard
| when typing, I roughly know the spacing of the letters. Plus auto
| correct is really good at this point, so when I do make mistakes
| the phone usually just corrects them.
|
| The only use case I could see for this is if the keyboard had
| control/alt/esc keys - in that case shelling into a machine on my
| phone might become slightly more efficient than an onscreen
| keyboard.
| cdata wrote:
| I don't necessarily disagree with your comment, but you don't
| seem to address the chief virtue claimed by this product's
| marketing material:
|
| > Free up your screen for content > Content First > Maximize
| your screen space for apps and content while you create with
| Clicks. > Clicks on. Screen size up. > Make more space for apps
| and content by moving the keyboard off your screen.
|
| I have had the experience of the software keyboard making my
| screen feel claustrophobic from time to time. It has never been
| bad enough that I would consider reaching for something like
| Clicks, but it's certainly a problem I would rather never
| encounter if I had the choice.
| bibanez wrote:
| I use the Unexpected Keyboard [1] on Android. I can use
| shortcuts like on a real keyboard and it is easy to get used
| to.
|
| [1]: https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard
| dylan604 wrote:
| I'm waiting for the day they remove the keyboard altogether and
| just have everyone use voice to text and eventually thought to
| text. I'd love to see that black mirror episode expanding on
| the meme of everyone sitting at a table texting each other at
| the same table but because of voice to text they've had this
| ingenious idea that they could just talk to each other instead!
| LAC-Tech wrote:
| And that is the last day I ever eat at a restaurant.
| dylan604 wrote:
| You won't eat at a restaurant where the people at the table
| talk to each other instead of texting each other?
| joshish wrote:
| It's mentioned in the MrMobile video, but should be noted this
| company is also run by the co-founders of F(x)tec. Glad to see
| they're still investing in keeb phones, even if it's just for
| iPhone for now. The F(x)tec Pro1 was a cool phone, but a hard
| sell considering how Android updates work. Still holding out for
| someone to make a new keyboard phone/accessory for Android.
| cassepipe wrote:
| I still miss a good T9
| Tepix wrote:
| It's a pity that the Textblade never went into real mass
| production. It was a very cool concept to have a tiny mobile
| keyboard with multitouch keys.
|
| Article back in 2019:
| https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/04/10/the-textblade-key...
| rgarrett88 wrote:
| I use an (awkwardly) pocketable keyboard as my daily driver.
| It's cool to be able to do real tasks but also not really a big
| enough value add to always keep with me.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/MoKo-Ultra-Thin-Rechargeable-Compatib...
| quasarj wrote:
| Wow, that thing looks amazing! How disappointing :(
| pushedx wrote:
| Reminds me of "Long GameBoy for No Reason"
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zPehVx_J0M
| popcorncowboy wrote:
| Somewhere Mike Lazaridis is banging a table trying to explain to
| a room full of idiots that he invented all of this.
| mytaterskin wrote:
| blackberry anyone?
| gumballindie wrote:
| Absolutely love the idea, reminds me of my hp ipaq, but will wait
| for clones. I wouldnt pay 160 USD for this, more like 60.
| Guaranteed amazon will be full of clones in a year.
| tw04 wrote:
| Wonder how they're getting around patent encumbrance. Ryan
| Seacrest already tried this a decade ago.
|
| https://www.pcmag.com/news/ryan-seacrest-invests-in-typo-iph...
|
| https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/typos-hardware-keyboard-for...
| odensc wrote:
| Visually, it looks a lot less like a copy of a BlackBerry
| keyboard, so that helps.
|
| The first patent quoted in that lawsuit article has expired
| [1]. The second patent is still active [2], but is related to a
| "ramped-key keyboard" (essentially curved), which this new
| product is not AFAICT.
|
| The third, a design patent [3], is still active, but would
| appear to only apply to a complete handheld device that
| includes an attached keyboard, not a separate accessory... Not
| a lawyer or patent expert by any means though.
|
| I guess we'll see - none of that stops anyone from suing them.
|
| [1]:
| https://patents.google.com/patent/US7629964B2/en?oq=7%2c629%...
|
| [2]:
| https://patents.google.com/patent/US8162552B2/en?oq=8%2c162%...
|
| [3]:
| https://patents.google.com/patent/USD685775S1/en?oq=D685%2c7...
| dsmmcken wrote:
| Typo's keyboard was very much a copy and probably infringed
| on even more then was listed.
|
| I can't think of any of their design patents this would
| interfere with. There's a small chance of some internal
| mechanical or light guide related patents, but that would be
| pretty unlikely. Even more unlikely would be BlackBerry
| having anyone around still that would even know what to look
| for.
| ubj wrote:
| It's fascinating how phones have come full circle. One of my
| first cell phones had a full QWERTY keyboard with physical keys
| that was exposed when you slid the top face of the phone
| sideways. Many phones in that era had similar full keyboards.
|
| The fact that the iPod touch, iPhone, iPads, and other surface
| devices didn't need physical keys was seen as more modern and
| desirable at the time. Now it looks like people are circling back
| around and wanting physical keys again.
|
| History moves in a helix I guess.
| heap_perms wrote:
| I like the helix comparision. It indicates progress. Reading
| this sentence I fully expected the word "circle" be used.
| ris58h wrote:
| > It's fascinating how phones have come full circle.
|
| Except they didn't. How many phones with keyboard are there?
|
| Edit: obviously I'm talking about popular ones.
| paxys wrote:
| Someone creating a peripheral that will sell like 10 units
| total isn't phones coming "full circle". There has always been
| stuff like this out there. Heck you can get iPhone keyboard
| attachments on AliExpress for 1/20 the price of this. No one is
| interested.
| ct520 wrote:
| Ah I see someone is capitalizing on the whole iPhone 15 pro max
| touchscreen not responsive issue. Kudos to click
| stainablesteel wrote:
| keyboards were awesome, i hate typing on screens
|
| but that just makes the phone even bigger.. they're already huge
| qainsights wrote:
| Looks like a bloated hardware.
| krabizzwainch wrote:
| Like, I understand why no iPhone 13 Mini support... but please? I
| can't imagine too much extra work goes into chopping the top half
| of the case off and just having different sizes. Almost like it's
| the Wii mote + case with the attachment at the bottom and
| everything is just in the sleeve.
| throwaway2037 wrote:
| Why does the design of this website have a "Saved by the Bell"
| vibe? (US TV show from 1990s.) And the dude with tats and salt-
| and-pepper beard just below "Make your statement" is super
| cringe.
| sdm wrote:
| Sucks if you speak more than one language, like most people do.
| addandsubtract wrote:
| Most people outside of the US.
| dbrans wrote:
| No trackpad?
| Havoc wrote:
| Bright yellow and marketed via emotion "make your statement".
|
| These are going to end up in a drawer by end of the week.
|
| There is a reason the mixed screen and physical keyboard phones
| lost. Screens can be keyboards but keyboards can't be screen.
| ahartmetz wrote:
| Consider current phone form factors. My phone has a 21:9 form
| factor. I rarely need the lowest third or so and would happily
| trade it for a physical keyboard.
| kjsingh wrote:
| Could have gone with bigger keys :)
| nemacol wrote:
| I like the idea of a little keyboard that I can attach. But this
| is a replacement case so it is meant to be on all the time?
|
| Some interesting layout choices. mostly ortholinear but not
| totally, double size enter key, same size backspace, tab,
| language globe.
|
| Neato idea, glad to see interesting accessories coming out. This
| is a hard sell for me.
| maxglute wrote:
| I wonder what the viability of a tactile T9 keyboard on the back
| of the phone is.
| justinl33 wrote:
| I love this! capacitive keyboards on a piece of technology will
| literally never get old.
| https://www.mpofcinci.com/blog/advantages-of-capacitive-touc...
|
| Only issue is I might need to store my new iPhone pro max in the
| water bottle compartment of my backpack with this case
| lofaszvanitt wrote:
| Xperia Mini Pro had the best built in/slide keyboard.
| foresto wrote:
| And decent battery life, and a user-swappable battery, and good
| reception, and an SD card slot, and a decent camera, and a
| headphone jack, and a good UI, and a reasonable price, and
| sized to fit in just about any pocket.
|
| I miss that phone.
| wackget wrote:
| A question I always ask is why we can't control our phones via
| desktop computers yet. It's 2024; this should be possible and
| mainstream without half-baked solutions like Airdroid or
| unacceptable workarounds like rooting your iPhone.
|
| I sit in front of a full-size keyboard and mouse literally all
| day, yet when I need to do something on my phone I'm forced to
| physically pick it up and use its horrible tiny little keyboard
| to achieve something I could achieve in 10% of the time on a PC.
| prestonlibby wrote:
| Not saying it's a universal or even remotely complete solution
| however I've much enjoyed using KDE Connect[1] toward this goal
| for a couple years now with satisfactory results for my needs.
|
| [1] https://kdeconnect.kde.org/
| qingcharles wrote:
| Windows comes with PhoneLink which lets you mirror your screen
| onto your desktop and click your apps with your mouse.
| ajdude wrote:
| My question is, why can't we use our phones as a fully dockable
| PC? For years, all I've wanted was a phone with computer specs
| that I can plug into a dock and use with a fully functional
| desktop operating system. Usually what ends up happening is you
| just have the same clumsy phone but on a giant monitor.
|
| The 15 promax is more than capable of doing this, but iOS is
| the limitation from a usability standpoint. Can't even split
| the screen like you can on an iPad.
| fragmede wrote:
| Android's had a number of attempts at that, the biggest one
| being Samsung DeX, but it's just not a mass market product,
| like mini cellphones or unsmart TVs.
| hommelix wrote:
| My Fairphone FP4 works with a HP USB C laptop docking
| station. The screen and the keyboard work.
| rtpg wrote:
| I mean you can use bluetooth keyboards with your iphone if you
| wanted to.
| diebeforei485 wrote:
| Keyboards are excellent for people with accessibility needs
| (which may include people with presbyopia, who could use the
| screen space, as well as people with dexterity issues). However,
| the problem with it being a case is that they need to make new
| ones every year.
|
| The competition is any external Bluetooth keyboard (or, for
| iPhone 15+ users, external USB-C keyboards as well). There are
| plenty of such options available online on Amazon or Temu etc
| including compact and folding options.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| I don't understand why they chose that insanely long form factor.
| What's wrong with landscape mode?
| StevePerkins wrote:
| Time is a flat circle.
| amzn12333 wrote:
| Look Grandpa, new Blackberry.
| girvo wrote:
| I love this so much, but it's a missed opportunity IMO:
|
| I want one for my 13 Mini, and (secondarily, even for normal
| sized iPhones) it should use the M600i/P1i keyboard
|
| http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/images/reviews/m600/m600-fron...
|
| QW is one key, you rock left for Q and right for W, or rather you
| tap on each side! It works amazingly well, especially with modern
| autocorrect id imagine, and makes it easier to hit the key.
|
| Or you could the TouchPal approach and just do QW as one key
| entirely and use autocorrect for the rest of it
| paxys wrote:
| I doubt this thing will get anywhere, but this discussion thread
| is making me nostalgic about the wild times of smartphone design
| in the late 2000s/early 2010s. Motorola Droid. HTC Touch. Palm
| Pre. Nokia N900/N95/N97 and their other crazy form factors. All
| the different Blackberrys.
|
| Phones were sliding, folding, twisting. Then at some point
| everyone decided that a glass rectangle was the only way to go
| and that was it.
| twism wrote:
| Success of the iPhone
| TheArcane wrote:
| there was so much.. variety, and every time I upgraded a phone
| it was also a changed human-machine interaction with the
| hardware. Oh exciting times!
| kirse wrote:
| I feel ya, I used to have one of these:
|
| https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_m600-pictures-1425.ph...
|
| And these:
|
| https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_6820-pictures-565.php
|
| Had the N900 and N95 as well. Back then it was easy to have a
| cool/unique phone because carriers weren't on top of their
| hardware lineups. Now everything is a boring rounded-corners
| slate. Even Sony gave up with the squared-edges on their Xperia
| lineup. I'm optimistic that rollable screens will bring back
| some real innovation beyond just clam-shells.
| xn7 wrote:
| The Palm Pre had the best mobile typing experience I have ever
| had. I tested a lot of different stuff (Blackberries, various
| weird looking Nokias), but something about the Palm Pre was
| just... better. It had the perfect amount of resistance, the
| keys were well defined and had a nice rubber touch.
| tiltowait wrote:
| webOS in general was amazing. I still prefer it over iOS,
| especially on tablets.
| twism wrote:
| Please do one for a Pixel but with ctrl, meta, alt, maybe esc
| keys.
| buggythebug wrote:
| Don't listen to the people on hacker news as they are a very
| specific niche of iphone users. Your users are those fat chicks
| with bitch on board bumper stickers who buy bubble tea because
| they think it's healthy.
|
| What I'm trying to say is it looks great and just iterate!
| paxys wrote:
| Palm Pre was where smartphone design peaked, and this keyboard
| design is making me nostalgic for that.
| tortoise_in wrote:
| Wish they give it for android. Because there will be more phones
| which are small as well. It will be great thing which I wished
| for a long time since htc made one. Blackberry is gone. And one
| company that makes qwerty keyboard phone is way expensive from UK
| to order
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| Smaller phones were killed by us. The majority of us.
| isurujn wrote:
| Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave lol. iPhones have been
| getting bigger and you still want _more_ screen space? Why not
| just get a iPad with an external keyboard at this point if you
| 're such a "content creator"?
| laweijfmvo wrote:
| because apple won't let me make phone calls on my ipad
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| This again reminded me what a struggle it is to use the iOS
| keypad on my iPhone 14. I don't what they got wrong. My fingers
| aren't big either. I never face this on android phones of similar
| size or even smaller (back in the day).
| pixelmonkey wrote:
| I wrote a little bit about why I still long for physical
| keyboards on phones here:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37713211
|
| My personal workaround is to have a Bluetooth keyboard + iPad or
| Lenovo X1C laptop with me at most times (in a backpack), which
| isn't ideal. But neither is this "Clicks" product :)
| upg1979 wrote:
| I would buy this if it had a sliding keyboard. I'd better wait
| for cheaper versions that will likely imitate this feature.
| p-e-w wrote:
| Strange choice to make this portrait instead of landscape.
|
| If I'm going through the trouble of attaching a hardware
| keyboard, I want the largest size that's still practical.
|
| A landscape keyboard of the same type might even be possible to
| type on with ten fingers. Which seems like it would be a massive
| productivity boost for many people.
|
| This is just a hardware version of the standard iOS keyboard. I
| doubt that the benefits of having physical keys are worth the
| trouble.
| pzautke wrote:
| Back in 2010 I had an iPhone 3GS and a Blackberry Bold. I really
| wanted to justify using the Bold because of the professional
| image I associated with it. In repeated typing speed tests, I
| found my WPM to be essentially the same between the two. Every
| other aspect of the iPhone user experience was vastly better. I
| kept the iPhone and never looked back to phones with keyboards.
| adolph wrote:
| Remarkably similar to this failed 2019 Kickstarter:
| https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/physibo/physibo
|
| And the Typo2 for iPhone 6 in 2014-5:
| https://www.amazon.com/Typo2-Keyboard-for-iPhone-6/dp/B00O49...
| abhayhegde wrote:
| Seems like an attempt to recreate Blackberry experience. While it
| looks interesting, the use case is not as appealing, and it is
| really expensive! For context, Apple Magic Keyboard for PCs cost
| less than this, which in itself is a much pricier product.
| WhackyIdeas wrote:
| Looks a little top heavy to me. Like it would be a struggle
| keeping my Pro Max from falling backwards out of my hand.
|
| But I suppose I wouldn't really need a Pro Max size after using a
| keyboard like this.
| psyclobe wrote:
| This would make the iPhone 13 mini pro a perfect device, too bad
| they didn't support they model.
| arrakeenrevived wrote:
| I'm fascinated by this thread for many reasons, but something
| interesting (or baffling to me?) that I don't see mentioned yet
| is the marketing or target audience for this thing.
|
| The tagline is "Create without limits". The page says "the first
| creator keyboard" as well as "Maximize your screen space for apps
| and content while you create with Clicks." In one of the videos
| on the page, the big pitch is that this can "double your
| effective screen size when you're working on captioning your
| Instagram stories".
|
| Is this keyboard specifically marketed at content creators /
| influencers? Why? Is there some special market for this that I'm
| not seeing? Is adding a caption to your instagram story really
| something that needs extra screen space?
| danboarder wrote:
| When adding overlay text and graphic compositions to a Reel or
| Story the keyboard is in the way as it covers up about 1/3 of
| the layout the creator is designing. Toggling the keyboard on
| and off to check the layout is a nuisance so I do see the
| advantage of an off-screen keyboard.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| Fun idea. But the problem with these things is that you need to
| keep rebuying new ones.
|
| Also, most of the problems with onscreen problems for me were
| mitigated by swype -style typing at which I'm faster than a
| physical phone keyboard now. Though not faster than a real PC
| keyboard which I still highly prefer when I'm at home or at the
| office. So I use my phone mainly for when I'm out of the house,
| at home I still have a PC that's on 24/7. As such I'm not really
| happy with the mobile-first attitude of most services but what
| can I do :)
| grahamgooch wrote:
| Mechanical engineer here. The moment of the of the phone is going
| to shift it's gonna be very uncomfortable to hold.
| bugbuddy wrote:
| You don't need to be a mechanical engineer to know that is
| contraption is going to feel very uncomfortable to hold.
|
| There are actually a bunch of other negatives that the
| cofounder did not mention. You will also lose the ability to
| quickly type emojis(might actually be a good thing). No more
| autocorrect/prediction and the keyboard is missing some common
| symbols such as angle brackets.
|
| Another likely problem with this keyboard is that the keys are
| too small because they are round. Square keys were the common
| choice for most cellphone keyboards for this reason.
| hx8 wrote:
| I prototyped something very similar during covid using a 3d
| printer, a blackberry keyboard, and a teensy. I don't think this
| is going to generate many long term users, even though I was
| enthusiastic enough to hack on it for a bit.
|
| * So much of my typing includes selecting emoji, using odd
| symbols, and the need for inputs not provided on this. In
| addition, having to switch between the touch screen and keyboard
| as inputs was very annoying.
|
| * It significantly decreases the experience of using the phone in
| touch situations.
|
| * I was using it with my iPhone mini and the phone and case had
| terrible weight balance. My hands fatigued quickly. I can't
| imagine how bad it would be for a iPhone Max.
|
| * I lost the use of my port.
| wey-gu wrote:
| as a Palm fan and iPhone user, I am so very interested in it.
| nbzso wrote:
| It's a half a subway submarine sandwich length. This will succeed
| in America:)
| 2shortplanks wrote:
| Before I put down cash I have basic questions, like "how do I
| type a square bracket?" and "how do I type a backtick?"
|
| The on-screen keyboard is pretty good, but makes coding and
| typing markdown hard. Will this solve this?
|
| Also, this seems to be missing cursor keys. How do I move back
| and forward precisely? If the onscreen keyboard is hidden, I
| can't even long press on space to move the cursor.
| rcarmo wrote:
| Mixed feelings. I was a heavy BlackBerry user (and a PM for it at
| a local telco) for years, and then when I got an iPhone 3G I
| found I could type _faster_ on it, to the point where a visiting
| Apple rep commented on how quick I was at it (way before current
| autocorrect).
|
| I have a feeling that Apple dropped the ball with the more modern
| keyboard implementations, but I can still type (and swipe) with
| good enough speed and accuracy to not really miss a physical
| keyboard.
| bjoli wrote:
| I usually attach a 60% keyboard to my phone every time i have to
| write longer things. I carry it with me everywhere.
|
| I despise having to write on a small touch keyboard, but I am
| pretty sure this would not solve any of my issues
| bevan wrote:
| For the creator of this product (and to any other creators
| launching soon): don't listen to the keyboard jockeys saying it
| will fail. We (commenters here) are essentially NPCs in your
| world. We're not your narrow target market, just some gawkers
| addicted to typing "news.yc..." into our browsers, maybe with
| nothing better to do. And although we sound confident, we really
| don't know if it'll fail, or take off, or pivot to a successful
| product. Good luck--and major props on the launch, the landing
| page looks great!
|
| ps. It will succeed.
| ant6n wrote:
| > We're not your narrow target market, just some gawkers
| addicted to typing "news.yc..." into our browsers...
|
| Speak for yourself. I just type "n" into the browser.
| srge wrote:
| Speak for yourself, I just click on a shortcut
| ed_elliott_asc wrote:
| Speak for yourself, I find myself on the site and I don't
| remember clicking anything. I was scrolling the news sites
| and mindlessly ended up here.
| saagarjha wrote:
| Speak for yourself, I just always have it open.
| feitingen wrote:
| Speak for yourself, I don't have anything else open.
| willhackett wrote:
| Speak for yourself, all my traffic proxies here.
| ant6n wrote:
| Well, that escalated quickly.
| endofreach wrote:
| Speak for yourself, i wrote a browser extension that
| replaces every link on any site with HN
| Snow_Falls wrote:
| RSS for the win! Though, I need to check it in the browser
| because sometimes it misses things.
| dgellow wrote:
| I just go back to the already opened HN tab :)
| tiborsaas wrote:
| I type the full URL. In the gym, on a treadmill's browser.
| See, I'm not addicted.
| qingcharles wrote:
| Speak for yourself, I forked Chromium and made it the default
| entry in the address bar and set it to read-only.
| NooneAtAll3 wrote:
| you mean "h" for hackernews, right? ...right?
| epanchin wrote:
| When Omegle shut down I looked here for when it was launched.
| All the replies to its first post, ~14 years ago, were
| negative.
|
| For the curious: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=539753
| mvkel wrote:
| In Omegle's case, was the criticism wrong? It was un-
| monetizable and ended under thumb of lawsuits.
| smithcoin wrote:
| but it was a great ride while it lasted*
| uoaei wrote:
| The causes may have been obvious but the timeline estimates
| were way off.
| ecshafer wrote:
| I was literally searching for physical keyboard attachments for
| the iphone last night. This is almost exactly what I want. I
| think a slide out keyboard would be nicer, but this looks
| awesome.
| WhackyIdeas wrote:
| I personally always type hackernews.org to get here.
| oblio wrote:
| A purist, I see.
| stjohnswarts wrote:
| https://hckrnews.com/ is my go to, I have it set to top
| 20/day otherwise I'd be on hacker news way too much/too long.
| It's a self limiting thing.
| column wrote:
| 140 USD for a gimmick case? waaay overpriced
| rusras64 wrote:
| this looks sliiick!
| larodi wrote:
| Apple is jealous now for not launching this product themselves.
| Best if author can get patent for it .)
| nemo8551 wrote:
| Ooft, that turns my 15 pro into a tall, tall boy.
|
| I love the idea of it but I don't think it's practical for me.
| liendolucas wrote:
| I don't know if this will succeed or not, there might be market
| for it. As a developer what I'm still looking for is a top notch
| quality small foldable keyboard that I can use with Termux if I
| feel to throw some code and don't have a laptop with me. I have
| literally looked everywhere on Amazon and Ebay only to find cheap
| chinese foldable junks that definitely won't last a week.
| JR1427 wrote:
| My favourite phone was my Blackberry Passport. So good.
|
| Bring. Back. Keyboards.
| herbcso wrote:
| I wonder if you could do a split keyboard and have it hanging off
| the sides like little winglets to get around the bending moment
| issues. Of course I have no idea what it would actually feel like
| to type on something like that, and it'd look weird as hell and
| make the phone oddly wide, but can't help but be curious about
| it.
|
| You have my permission to steal this idea if anybody wants to
| hive that a shot. ;]
| wey-gu wrote:
| Now I can enjoy Palm Pixi on my iPhone, loved it.
| superultra wrote:
| I wish this existed for my 13 mini!
| littledole wrote:
| I first looked at the keyboard case and thought that it was an
| insult to design of smartphones. Then after about 30 seconds of
| watching my husband walk across the kitchen, I realized I'm not
| the target audience. He is. He mourned the passing of the
| physical home button and enjoys the tactile response of keys
| under his fingers. There is definitely a market for this product.
| I just went from "absolutely not" to "add to cart". Way to go!
| amsterdorn wrote:
| Interesting concept, but landing page is giving lots of red
| flags. This is the entrypoint for all of your customers; it
| should be flawless. Especially when posting to a tech-centric
| site.
|
| Body needs an 'overflow-x: hidden' rule, or a wrapping div to the
| rotated images. The main heading is off-center. And almost 18 MB
| of images on pageload is wild, see what https://pagespeed.web.dev
| says.
| simsla wrote:
| Looks decent to me, apart from the 18MB.
| amsterdorn wrote:
| These certainly aren't good omens for the technicals of the
| product, let alone ability to process payments.
| prmoustache wrote:
| What does "creator keyboard" means?
| latexr wrote:
| Marketing speak. It's a keyboard for "creators" of "content".
| It's the kind of lingo used to entice wannabe influencers.
| You're not just wasting time on Instagram all day, you're
| "crafting rich content experiences for your audience". It's the
| same type of mentality that leads one to quote themselves at
| the top of their own website for their own product.
| kdmytro wrote:
| I wish there was a phone flip case with a keyboard. I have seen
| tablet keyboards like this, but they are too big to use with a
| smartphone.
| ensocode wrote:
| Want my Google G1 back :-)
| KAKAN wrote:
| It's kind of weird to me that it starts from $139, a price range
| where you can buy a 65% Keychron mech keyboard[1], _and_ stuff
| like the Pinephone Keyboard[2]. The latter is not exactly
| comparable, since its more like a mini-keyboard stuck into a
| mini-sized case, but I still feel like $139 is a lot for
| something that you can't use beyond a single generation of a
| device. Maybe if it was modular and you could take out the
| keyboard from the case for easy upgradibility or something, the
| price could be justified?
|
| [1]: https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-k7-ultra-slim-
| wir... [2]: https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-pinephone-pro-
| keyboard-...
| wayfinder wrote:
| I would be more down if it wasn't tied to the generation of
| phone.
|
| Also I'd love a keyboard with more buttons personally. I know I'm
| in a tiny minority here but I get ~70 WPM on an iPhone keyboard
| but if I have to do symbols or anything it goes down to like 4.
|
| I know you can buy a separate Bluetooth keyboard but then you
| need to rest your phone and stuff.
| dgellow wrote:
| Wouldn't it make more sense to trade thickness instead of height
| for a physical keyboard? A horizontal layout attached on the back
| of the device that you can slide.
|
| I still miss my N900 keyboard...
| BossingAround wrote:
| Oh I definitely miss the N900 keyboard! That was awesome!
|
| The OS, on the other hand, not so much. I remember it slowing
| down (after ~2 years? Maybe 3) where if someone called me, it
| took roughly 30s for the phone to get responsive again so that
| I could accept the call. It _was_ cool to run Linux on it
| though :)
| epanchin wrote:
| I loved my blackberry and I'm interested.
|
| I'd be more likely to order it if the keyboard was mounted in a
| case that could be changed when upgrading iPhone.
| yujian wrote:
| very nostalgic
| CodeCube wrote:
| I'm legitimately surprised that whoever owns the blackberry IP
| didn't do something like this way sooner.
|
| _edit_ : lol, nevermind
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38875842
|
| > Ryan Seacrest (yes the Ryan Seacrest) bankrolled a startup 10
| years ago with an almost identical product. (They were sued out
| of existence by an already dying BlackBerry.)
| dyeje wrote:
| This is pretty cool! I wonder if you could make one with an
| adjustable mounting system for the long tail of weirdos like me
| with a new iPhone SE and other models.
| whywhywhywhy wrote:
| If I was one of those people who worked most of their day on
| iphone I'd be into this.
|
| Missing a trick with no arrow keys though because the worst part
| of iOS typing is moving the caret.
| milkers wrote:
| Does anyone remember Ericsson A1018 external keyboard
| attachments? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNdreBTNybM
| CodeWriter23 wrote:
| Apple have kinda opened a niche for such products through recent
| "improvements" to autocorrect which make it highly unreliable.
| jareklupinski wrote:
| i need this for a 12 mini
|
| extending the already small phone would basically bring it in
| line with larger phones in its class, but with a keyboard
| Reubachi wrote:
| I have a 13 mini and would advise that you and I abandon our
| lines of thinking/hope :p
|
| They'll never make another phone this size, and accessory
| manufacturers ofc take their cue from Apple. I thought about
| some bespoke/custom keyboard for mine as I have experience with
| USB periphials but I kept coming back to "will I have this
| phone in 4 months?"
| jareklupinski wrote:
| Enjoying it for 4 months is 4 months of enjoyment :)
|
| "Mitch, do you want an apple? No, eventually it will be a
| core!" - Mitch Hedberg
|
| I'll join in and that will make it 8 months!
| laweijfmvo wrote:
| I've considered more than once stocking up on good condition
| used 13 minis, just in case mine breaks or apple stops
| replacing the batteries
| arxpoetica wrote:
| There will come a day (with the advent of AI speech recognition)
| where keyboards will be obsolete.
|
| That day is sooner than we think.
| hollerith wrote:
| I dread that day. It's annoying enough listening to people's
| phone conversations; in my experience, listening to people
| using speech to operate a UI is a higher level of annoyance
| (because the person's speech tends to start and stop abruptly
| because the cognitive demands of operating a UI are higher than
| that of having a conversation with a person).
| arxpoetica wrote:
| Valid point I hadn't considered. Maybe the day isn't as soon
| as we think--perhaps both will exist...
|
| ...until we have speech muffler envelopes built into our
| devices.
| piinbinary wrote:
| I bet it's big enough that it could also contain an SD card
| reader, which could be really useful
| nye2k wrote:
| I could not find the remote to my TV this morning and attempted
| to use my iPhone instead. By the time I arrived at the correct UI
| my 3 yr old had already found a PS4 controller and was able to
| control the TV and navigate to where he wanted to go... I only
| needed to notch up the volume.
|
| Assistive devices are necessary for a large audience, as they
| allow users to leverage their strengths. Just as my 3yr old beat
| my phone speed with a game controller, users will be able to type
| faster than me with this keyboard.
|
| It is nice to have a single device that tries to do it all, but
| interacting with flat UI buttons in a 2D plane of light and glass
| is limited to a very small set of sensory inputs and therefore
| cumbersome for anyone to use. There is physically no way around
| this HCI problem without adding additional hardware. Thanks for
| working to bridge the gap!
| bborud wrote:
| The number of comments on this thread is data. I'm not sure what
| this data suggests, but it has to mean something that (at the
| time of commenting) there are nearly 500 comments. That's a lot
| more than I would have expected.
| betimsl wrote:
| They should consider replacing Thunderbolt with USB-C :)
| beanjuiceII wrote:
| does it support swipe because i need that
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