BlackBerry brings back call, end keys, touchpad to Q20 keyboard cutie

BlackBerry has admitted that its made its some of its traditional users who stayed loyal to the company very fed up when it dropped some of its best-loved features. At Mobile World Congress today, the company formerly known as RIM said it would bring back the classic trackpad as well as Call ("Send"), End and Menu keys to a …

[petur]

The concept looks good

because the back-view has slightly different dimensions than the front view. Must be magic.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The concept looks good

Sinking ship. No one cares

[Hollerith 1]

Re: The concept looks good

I care -- I like my ancient BlackBerry, but wish I could have some more modern stuff like the cool kids have. If I can keep my beloved keyboard and have some goodies, I will buy one in a heartbeat.

[The Stolly]

Re: The concept looks good

The small phone is far away, the big one is closer.

[James 51]

The Q5 was suppose to be their mid to low level device so the reduced component quality was to be expected.

If the Z3 has the same antenna design as the Z30 and usb host mode I'd snap up one up right away.

The combination of trackpad and touchscreen would be interesting.

[bpfh]

Like my 9720 ? It can be confusing at times especially on mapping websites, but globally, i'm happy, even if I am a generation or 2 behind...

[James 51]

Didn't realise that the 9720 had a touchscreen.

[Anonymous Coward]

@James 51

The trackpad is good for editing and nothing else on a phone comes near. However:

1. It wasn't terribly reliable.

2. I can't see the point of keeping the other buttons.

Otherwise I agree with you, I can see the point of an iPhone like touchscreen BB10 with a touchpad where the iPad button goes, but it wastes an awful lot of vertical space on a qwerty.

[AJ MacLeod]

Re: @James 51

My own trackpad (BB9105) has been very reliable even in situations where it couldn't really be expected to be and as for the physical disconnect button I won't buy a phone without one. I only hope they don't make it completely flat and indistinguishable by feel...

[James 51]

Re: @James 51

I have only the trackpad on my 9320 to base a judgement on. The first was good till it went haywire and the refurbished replacement is acceptable. It is a lot handier than having a touchscreen would be in a lot of situations, particularly when using it as a bluetooth mouse with the bridge connection to a playbook.

[Captain Scarlet]

Re: @James 51

Trackpad at the bottom I don't think would work, having to move you thumb lower would be uncomfortable if you had to use it continually.

Although I would love a bit more accuracy when editing text I maybe only need to use it once in a blue moon so would prefer a bit more screen real estate.

[dajames]

Re: @James 51

I can't see the point of keeping the other buttons.

Every phone should have one hardware button that's always available and that immediately disconnects any call that's in progress or about to be made.

If you don't see the point you've obviously never accidentally dialled your boss's home number at 3am.

[AJ MacLeod]

Finally!

A company that listens to their customer base and not only admits to mistakes but rectifies them? I'm sold. If only they'd bring back a model with a proper numeric keypad too... I know I'm not likely to see that ever again though and my current phone won't survive for ever - this is probably as good as I'm going to get, and far more than I honestly expected so unless the reviews of the final device are universally awful I expect to be ordering one.

[Terry 6]

Re: Finally!

What I find fascinating about this is it demonstrates yet again the IT industry's habit of removing the proven features that make a device work well so that they can insert something new and useless. (Win 8 anyone?).

[Anonymous Coward]

BB Curve vs Z10

I have to say, having replaced my trusty but unfortunately damaged BB Curve 8510 to the Z10, that there is one feature of the Z10 which sends me into John Cleese-like apoplexy:

...the damned touchscreen edit facility.

Moving the insert point around on the old touchpad was simple and very quick and painless.

Now, trying to locate the insert point on the Z10 appropriately to edit a typo using its touchscreen edit widget is mind wrenchingly infuriating. I usually simply resort to backspacing, erasing all the correct text back to the point of the typo and starting again.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: BB Curve vs Z10

I find editing text I've typed pretty easy on a BB10 device. All you need to do is touch roughly where you want to edit so the circular cursor appears. Then you can tap on the top/bottom/left/right side of the cursor to move it up/down/left/right a character or line to exactly the position you want. Pretty much the same idea as a touchpad, but without needing the real estate.

[James 51]

Re: BB Curve vs Z10

Editing documents on the playbook is similarly frustrating. Got a bluetooth mouse. A lot better but because document to go won't let me click in the middle of a word most of the time still frustrating.

[V_Eight]

I am one of those loyal BB uses that felt let down when I got the Z10. The girl left BB because of it and I am close to it as well. Fact of the matter many people I know have left the band wagon.

Lets hope they un-invent the wheel and produce a phone that works well, has battery life, secure, email, a keyboard, and is not the size of my laptop. I don't want apps, Don't want finger print readers, and definitely don't want to be tracked by advertising.

[Jess]

"That's probably because you need to sideload an app like Snap first"

Have I missed something?

My Q5 loads android apps quite happily, (and some of then even work properly), I've never sideloaded and app like snap.

I just downloaded the amazon store app with the browser and everything was fine.

The android stuff is a bit glitchy and clunky compared to the native stuff, but not unusably so.

[Gerhard den Hollander]

snap

You need to sideload snap if you want to access the googlplay store. If you can find the raw apk file, you can just doubleclick it.

2 caveats:

1) corporate phones usually have a security policy that disables debug mode, so no sideloading possible

2) some android apps rely on the Google play api (e.g. For in game purchases) and Google play api is not supported on bb10.

So Google maps will work fine, plants vs zombies 2 fails to start.

[Anonymous Coward]

Defending its keyboard IP?

I don't think anyone is going to try to steal it, so they're safe!

[Levente Szileszky]

Re: Defending its keyboard IP?

But that's just you, a naive, not too well-read fella: http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2014/02/19/ryan_seacrest_iphone_keyboard_blackberry_patent_spat/

Joking aside it's pretty hair-raising, sure - a personal pet-project of Seacrest, this not too sharp but clearly clueless clown: he got used to his old BlackBerry's excellent keyboard but he wanted it on an iPhone and he's stupid & arrogant enough to think he can just get it done, not giving a a flying frog about anyone else's rights...

...now that he got into hot water he probably hired a bunch of expensive lawyers, thinking he will get out of this - nope, he will pay dearly, either way but most likely TWICE, to BB AND to his lawyers. Good riddance.

[RNixon]

Re: Defending its keyboard IP?

You missed the complete and total BB keyboard ripoff for the iPhone, then?

It's not even 'sort of similar' - it's a clone of the Q10's keyboard, right down to the shape of individual keys and the width of the silver bar between rows.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Defending its keyboard IP?

Buying an iPhone and putting a BB keyboard case/attachment or whatever it is to try to turn it into a Blackberry is just nuts, but I guess I underestimate how low the lowest common denominator can be.

Excuse me, I think I'm going to see if I can find some pedals for my Harley, so I can ride it like a bike!

[Jim84]

They haven't dealt with the other problem that El Reg identified

Everyone is now used to context sensitive on screen keyboards, and a physical keyboard can't do this... unless they somehow used white LEDS for the regular symbols and UV LEDs and had 'blacklight' secondary symbols on the keys that are normally black and invisible (I don't know how this would work).

Also the screen is still tiny compared to Android/iPhone due to the physical keyboard taking up so much space. Whatever happened to the idea of a decent slider?

[Jim84]

Pardon my ignorance

But why can't Blackberry make it so that you don't have to sideload an app like snap first before installing Android apps??

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Pardon my ignorance

All snap does is provide access to the Google Play store. You don't need it to install Android apps - if you've got the APK file, then you can simply just install it, no app needed.

[c:\boot.ini]

snap ?

The whole point, for me at least, to own a BB10 device is to keep the NSA From logging my mistresses details and avoiding handing other personal details to advertisers.... what is the point of installing android apps? I dunno...

Besides, Android apps can access all your contacts, send sms'... you name it, on blackberry, I have choice for bb10 apps, I allow/disallow privs and am usually quite paranoid... I only ever use basic app features anyway so I don't need to allow the app crazy shit, no 3rd party app gets access to my contacts, I do not know about you guyz ... careful or sorry?

Sent from a z30