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Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

#231

Post by 45ure »

I am still using Bold 9780, not for the nostalgia but for the functionality, as limited as it might be today. I left my first (old) number in it, when I migrated to iPhone/Androids, with new numbers.

Today it serves quite well, as a notification/SMS/OTP and backup emergency device; bank(s), medical contacts, old friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. I receive no junk/spam calls, whatsoever.

The battery lasts two weeks approximately, with no WiFi, Bluetooth turned on. No BIS -- it is basically a 3G phone, and also on a completely different network to my other phones. If only the functionality of a softphone/SIP app could somehow be re-instated, I would endeavour to keep it alive for as long as possible.

https://forums.crackberry.com/blackberry-bold-series-f235/ol...

Re: Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

#232

Post by awinter-py »

smcl wrote: post #157
awinter-py wrote: post #64

I could type 55 wpm on the keyboard. Every time I use a screen keyboard I feel like I lose 10 IQ points. I can use a physical keyboard without looking, but the screen keyboard takes twice as long and consumes my full attention if I want any speed. The blackberry felt like an extension of my brain on the internet. Touchscreen devices feel like an extension of the internet in my brain + eyes, not as nice. I used my bla…

I loved my blackberry's keyboard, but I adjusted to iOS on-screen keyboard (starting circa the iPhone 4S) pretty well. Last couple of years though iOS autocorrect has started to be extremely aggressive and frequently very wrong (incorrectly changing were->we're, ill->i'll for example. and today changing "Torvalds" to "Torshavn" or something when I was talking about Linus and not the Faroes). If someone has a nice pho…

yes all the ML based ones feel like they're consistently adjusting to everyone in the world at once

I can learn to use a consistent kb, but I can't learn a moving target

Re: Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

#233

Post by guenthert »

The BlackBerry smartphone not so much. It might be a personal deficit, but I found myself often misunderstanding longer e-mails when reading those on that tiny screen. Eventually I just used it to be notified about new messages and then seek a proper computer / screen to digest those before answering. As a notification device, the old pagers worked better, as they used FM radio with better coverage / penetration. I miss those.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

#234

Post by guenthert »

vincentmarle wrote: post #177
smcl wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loved my blackberry's keyboard, but I adjusted to iOS on-screen keyboard (starting circa the iPhone 4S) pretty well. Last couple of years though iOS autocorrect has started to be extremely aggressive and frequently very wrong (incorrectly changing were->we're, ill->i'll for example. and today changing "Torvalds" to "Torshavn" or something when I was talking about Linus and not the Faroes). If someone has a nice pho…

> autocorrect has started to be extremely aggressive and frequently very wrong First thing I do when setting up a new phone is turning off auto correct and auto capitalization. Yes, I still make mistakes, but I prefer becoming quite handy at using my backspace button than having to fight the auto correct all damn time.

Autocorrect is an awful feature. Humans can easily determine from context which word was meant, if a letter or two are wrong. If autocorrect picks the wrong word, as it all too often does, the meaning is lost. Instead of a lousy typist, you come across as insane.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

#235

Post by bgro »

Tsarbomb wrote: post #221
bgro wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There appears to be some speculation about something changing on the iOS keyboard / autocorrect, causing it to get worse in the past few years. You're not alone!

Based on my experience with my iphone, I have a suspicion they've optimised somehow for people having fatter fingers. I've noticed that sometimes the auto correct assumes I mean to press a character next to the one I wanted.

This actually would make a lot of sense.

My previous guess was the original version had spaghetti code (ex: lots of hard coding edge cases), and they tried to move it to a more standardized / maintainable code block that hasn't been fully brought up to speed.

The guess was based on a interview video I saw discussing the various prototypes for the original iphone keyboard.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

#236

Post by milkytron »

starky wrote: post #228
eitland wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SwiftKey is getting buggier but is still a massive step up from the default since it: - works with more languages - can be configured to suggest completions and corrections but not auto-apply them (If anyone from MS/SwiftKey team wonders: these days if I delete a word and start on a new it shows both the original word and the best predictions for the new word. Thankfully it only inserts the new one - but sadly it ins…

I don't get how Swiftkey went from being almost perfect to being almost perfectly shit at predicting what I want to say. I've switched to GBoard and also hate it (e.g. it won't auto-capitalize "I" for me), but at least the predictions are usable.

Well... SwiftKey did get bought out by Microsoft, I wonder if that has had any impact.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

#237

Post by 908B64B197 »

thedrbrian wrote: post #121
centizen wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was at RIM during this time and it was an absolute shitshow. It took so much in-fighting to get RIM to even address the iphone, so many people thought it was a passing fad and would never get polished enough to be a real competitor, despite the fact it was already destroying marketshare. But even then, there wasn't enough buy in from the company at large with the device, and it was certainly rushed, I think almost…

How accurate is this globe and mail article? https://archive.vn/2017.01.16-035350/http://www.theglobeandm... > Competition rising Mike Lazaridis was at home on his treadmill and watching television when he first saw the Apple iPhone in early 2007. There were a few things he didn’t understand about the product. So, that summer, he pried one open to look inside and was shocked. It was like Apple had stuffed a Mac compu…

BB built for the carriers. Apple builds for the consumer. Apple's logic was that AT&T was going to upgrade it's network, or else they'd switch to Verizon.

I think it also highlight a talent gap. Apple managed to squeeze a desktop OS on a phone, and get the best touchscreen on the market, on their first try. Blackberry couldn't even match the original iPhone two years after it's release.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

#238

Post by chudi »

The problem with Blackberry for me it was the bad dev ecosystem that you had, poor documentation, hidden features, some nice ideas like OTA updates that were replaced with stuff like play stores, the need for the carriers to connect to RIM to make some use of the vpns, etc

When it worked was really nice, but the dev exp wasn't pleasurable at all

Re: Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

#239

Post by ir77 »

No, it was garbage in 2011, no wonder they’re out of business.

My first “smartphone” through Verizon was the 96xx berry, the first time I did OTA update for OS it wiped 90% of my contacts. On crackberry they told me it was a “computer” and you need to update it tethered to a computer.

Then one time I tried to download a local bus schedule with it in pdf format, it wouldn’t open pdf natively and pointed me to some $40 app - all in the meantime my friend’s “iToy” 3GS opened the same pdf in browser with no issues.

As soon as Verizon got the iPhone4 I never had anything else.

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