
I got love for you
If you were designed in the 80s.
BlackBerry, which recently suffered one of the most sudden and catastrophic crashes of any technology company, begins its comeback on Wednesday. For John Chen's firm, it marks the end of almost 18 months in the wilderness and out of the public eye. But the Canadian mobile firm is still going, and just about breaking even – it' …
Does anyone want to buy a big square phone/pad thing?
Of course. All the other smartphones look much the same. This is sufficiently different to everything else that it instantly makes clear that
a) You're not a rich nob with an iPhone, and
b) You're not a poor nob who wanted an iPhone but couldn't afford one.
"This is sufficiently different to everything else that it instantly makes clear that...."
They could have made it triangular, or even star shaped then? I think not. It's a brave effort, but it's the brave effort of a company that finds every logical path blocked, and so they take the least illogical path.
Can you imagine the struggle to get that fucker out of a tight pair of jeans? I suppose most Blackberry hard core addicts don't have the figure for tight jeans, but if you follow the demographic then you'll be issuing that in beige with a ear trumpet accessory.
I'm sorry to say that, but that's how it sits.
Can you imagine the struggle to get that fucker out of a tight pair of jeans?
I admit the first thing I thought of when I saw the picture was how convenient, and safe, it'd be in a pant pocket. If I wore a suit jacket all the time (which I would, if I had a good excuse to, but alas I don't) it'd be fine. As it is, I'm not sure how I'd carry the damn thing around.
As it stands, I'll probably stick with cheap Android phones with sliding physical keyboards for the foreseeable future. Nothing else looks like a viable replacement for my use case.
Well if you must wear tight jeans and put a phone in the pocket then there have been few phones that fit that use case since the launch of the iPhone. Really you are looking at phones like the old Nokia 6111 or 5300, which not only fitted comfortably in trouser pockets but also didn't stick out and so run the risks of being nicked or falling out without you noticing.
As others have pointed out, this is a phone for the jacket pocket/handbag or shirt pocket (tech's) rather than the trouser pocket.
"a rich nob with an iPhone,"
Not really. A friend of mine is lamenting the fact that his poor, part time employed, minimum wage kids just spent the last few days waiting in iPhone lines for the latest shiny. And now he is going to have to make Top Ramen deliveries for the next few months because the toys came out of their meager food budgets.
Having the latest iThing is becoming a statement of "I have enough free time to sleep on the sidewalk for this". Not a stereotype that the upper levels of society wish to adopt.
Oh my dear God. Does anyone want to buy a big square phone/pad thing?
It's a bloody phone - and comms device. Can it make phone calls? Can it text and email? Can I see my contacts and diary, and get online a bit?
Next question, is it nice to use. What it looks like, I couldn't really give a damn. Although I admit that in a work phone I insist on black or some dull grey/silver thing, because I think primary colours look a tad unprofessional. But if there's no choice, I'll take the best handset. Which means that I have had a metallic purple (aubergine possibly?) Motorola RAZR V3i - possibly the best phone I ever had.
Personally I never liked the Blackberry buttons. Too small for my fat fingers. And I was quicker texting on an old dumbphone. Though some people were incredibly quick at typing with their berries. However I've come to hate trying to type on touchscreen keyboards. It doesn't help that Apple's keyboard, auto-correct and text handling is now crap compared to Win Phone and Android. I'm thinking my next work phone will be a Lumia. Or a Galaxy Note, then I'd get a yummy stylus for text input.
But this thing might be good. Bigger phone, bigger buttons. Some tactile feedback instead of horrible onscreen peck-and-miss. Not as good if you want the whole screen to be able to use the internet a lot. But I use my mobile as a phone. Calendar, email and large numbers of contacts are secondary, and the browser and apps come in a definite third place. If your usage is different, then please move along. It's all about having the right tool for the job. If the tool is also pretty, so much the better. If it's not, who cares.
I really miss having a physical keyboard on my phone and as an existing Amazon customer this does seem to tick a lot of my boxes. The aspect ratio of that screen looks like it'd be great for eBooks etc. as well.
However, after their about face on the promised Playbook update I just cannot bring myself to get back in their camp though. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I'd want to try a square mobile before I dismissed the idea. I imagine the shape could be more useful for productivity apps. iPad and iPad mini is 4:3, which isn't quite square but closer to it than the 16:9 ratio of most Android tablets and mobiles.
The killer for me is the keyboard, not so keen on that. I liked the Palm Pre 2 one, but the rest sucked for me.
> than the 16:9 ratio of most Android tablets
I thought most popular Android tablets (Nexus, Samsung Tabs, Sony, Lenovo) were 16:10 while most Windows tablets were 16:9. While 16:10 is indeed further away from square than 4:3 it's still a whole lot better than 16:9 (which I hate with a passion).
A wafer thin brick perhaps, but a brick none the less.
Sharp angular design, a keyboard that would have looked good in the 90's and a name that's now tarnished beyond saving...
Like the Walking Dead, the #Deadphone is back, but unlike the walkers, I don't see this sucker surviving very long.
They see that their device is used for one thing, e-mail, and they see their market threatened by touchscreen phones. Therefore they build a touch screen phone... which doesn't sell well... then they add a keyboard... which sells a little bit better... then they make it square so you can actually read something on it without ditching the touch screen phone form factor.
This won't stop the squeeze from other touch screen phone manufacturers. What Blackberry could do would be to find new markets. For example if they had a decent keyboard (with CTRL, ALT and ESC keys) they could become immensely popular with technical users. If they would open the protocol or allow secure sessions they could get secure alternatives to the BES.
There's a lot of space left in the mobile world, but you need to stop going where it's crowded.
a Samsung Note 3 or 4 (can't remember which one, but i'm sure both of these are close matches themselves) -- the Passport is slightly wider, and a just a bit shorter.
And with the Apple iPhone6 being the bee's knees right now, what are people complaining about? Really, the size? That it's square? I'm sure we'll hear the age-old 'app store is empty!' - you know, i don't need no stinkin' apps.
Remember the immortal words of Huey Lewis and The News: 'it's hip to be square'!
Now, if only this would be available for a CDMA (Verizon) network...
Im going to support the post of Testman, who said another grid of icons, yawn?
In so far as might there just be a choice? of a text list instead on icons?
I dont like icons, and use a MP that has its menu in text. OK its win mobile version 6,
but it does what I want, not what the MP maker thinks I want.
theres no choice for this in most Android MP's.
Now at tomorrows Passport launch, can i please ask the author of this article if he goes to it, to ask some high up Blackberry droid if he can have a text menu instead of icons? Id love to know.