The BlackBerry may be dead, but others are lining up to take its place Some time later this year, a TCL staffer will press the red button on the Blackberry brand phones production line and, unless another firm takes the reins, it'll be the end of the road for the humble BlackBerry. The iconic phone-with-a-keyboard helped popularise the smartmobe category, transforming it from the preserve of well …
Can't say I'm going to miss them as the Bold (OS 5) was the worst bug ridden phone I ever had, the most annoying of which would be it would lose cell tower connectivity and wouldn't come back until you rebooted it which got me a bollocking from the boss because he thought I was dodging him.
I chortled at "humble BlackBerry".
I'm old enough to remember a time of Really Important Managers proudly displaying their BlackBerries in very conspicuous pouches attached to their belts. Of them silencing you in the middle of a sentence because an ominous vibration was emitted from said pouch, thus indicating a More Important Than You message had just arrived and they had to open the pouch, take the BlackBerry out and make clear that you were not worthy to see whatever was now shown on its display.
Back then, "in your face" it was, not "humble". Rise and fall, and all that.
Now back to finish reading this article :)
BlackBerry's software support used to be great but the new devices went EOL very quickly. SWMBO got a DTEK in 2017, OS hasn't had updates since summer 2018.
As for Planet, unfortunately support is even worse: three OS updates since launch of the Gemini and slew of bugs never fixed. I've ended up getting a portable keyboard which I can use with any phone.
"...the vanishingly small slither..."
So are you calling those people who want a 'phone with a keyboard snakes?
Slither is what snakes do. The word you are looking for, and not finding, is sliver.
Yes, pettifogging, nitpicking and pedantic but the use of incorrect words is starting to irritate on what is otherwise an informative, irreverent and amusing site.
I'm probably in an incredibly small minority here but I actually can't use most touchscreens; my fingers just don't register anything with the sensors. This has been a problem for me with smartphones, ATM's, POS units, McDonalds new we-no-longer-provide-cashiers-cos-they're-stuck-in-the-back-of-the-plastic-straw-cupboard systems and a very expensive touch-lamp gift.
For me the Blackberry Q5 and Q10 were the best phones I ever owned. Not purely down to the excellent keyboard but the fact I could put the handset in my pocket without any pleased to see me jokes, the batteries lasted 3 days with moderate use, the screens were fantastic and well suited to browsing most reasonably well designed web pages as well as a full screen terminal emulator. Call quality was good, signal range excellent regardless of how I held them and as I got both my handsets towards the end of their popularity I paid peanuts for them.
I see somebody mentioned the Gemini above somewhere with similar experiences to mine. This could never serve as any kind of an alternative to a phone.... or a keyboard.... or a palm top.... or anything else functional. If you could get a 9mm thick Nokia Communicator I'd be interested though.
I do and I don't. I had a TyTn (under Vodafone branding), a Touch Pro and a Desire Z and as time went on the build quality of the keyboards dropped. In some respects I do still miss a physical keyboard, but maybe not the extra weight/size, plus I can still remember keys failing.
I have a Blackberry keyboard APK that has moved through multiple Android phones since my Q19 got crunched.
Even though every phone and manufacturer insists on "improving ' Android with annoying third-party features, at least I've had a consistent, reliable keyboard across devices.
Oh but I do remember & do miss my first Google phone the HTC-made G1 for T-Mobile with a slide-out keyboard, and I actually loved it's clickable trackball--although I hated desktop trackballs and never had a BlackBerry nor Palm. It had the perfect form factor for my big thumbs to learn how to texttype, after desktop touch typing at up to 90 WPM for decades.The G2 was a step down trying to streamline the hefty design and had a lesser clumsy square rocker replacing the precision of the former trackball.
The G1 trackball felt like velcro & not only did it stick nicely to the tip of the index finger, it also gently stuck to it's position and moved a few pixels when nudged to the next sticky point. Never seen nor felt anything else quite like that. A brilliant solution in the dustbin of Android history.
https://www.androidauthority.com/first-android-phone-t-mobile-g1-htc-dream-906362/
Blackberry should license their keyboards (even SureType) to other manufacturers to make case covers, battery backs, snap-ons, and handheld BlueTooth units all with their keyboards. And they should license the software for their touch screen keyboards. I'd love a 9900, Q10, or SureType keyboard for my iPhone.
I'd've bought a Key2 if it'd been less expensive or came with a deal from my carrier the way my iPhone 8+ did.
N900 Or N950 with an Ottercase was night indestructible with a beautiful sliding keyboard.
Wish mine don't end up in a ditch somewhere on a torrential rainy day :-P else I would still be rocking the snap cover to take fotos one handed and installing debian packages and doing all fun stuff... Compared to the bloated crap everyone calls a POS "os".... Even SailfishOS/Jolla can come close to whatt was the Nokia's last hurrah :-|
My N900 ended in my front trousers pocket with some keys and when I sat down the screen got damaged releasing the liquid in the LCD. One of my favourite devices of yesteryear the Sharp Zaurus was still working when I spun it up about a year ago. My Psion S5 and Ericsson MC128 both stopped working years ago.
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