Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

news.ycombinator.com

41–50 of 268 posts

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

#42
yes, and I used the newer TCL handsets while they were still feasible.

everyone thought I was mr.bsns at every meeting; despite personal feelings around attractive bezel-less displays, when someone puts a full keyboard down on the table, it sends a really clear signal.

the apps that broke because of the weird aspect ratio were apps that weren't well-engineered / worthy of my attention anyway :^)

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

#43

Battery life (4-5 days) and being able to have an extra battery or being able to share is what I miss most. I also miss the customizations for alerting. I would set personal colour coded alerts on the led - that was perfect. Customization of alerts is very limited on anything else I’ve used since. The iPhone keyboard seems to be getting worse with its auto correct. If it gets any worse (or maybe it’s me) I will get t…

Wow, this looks like it's at like -2 or -3 or something. Extremely weird.

Regarding LED color, there are random apps for Android that let you play with the LED color on _some_ phones, like *goes digging in menu* this one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.coolbeans....

Looks like the important bit is Notification.Builder->setLights, now NotificationChannel.Builder->setLights:

- NotificationCompat: https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/core/app/No...

- Notification: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Notifica... ("deprecated in API 26: use NotificationChannel")

- NotificationChannel: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Notifica...

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

#44

I vastly prefer on screen keyboards. I'm faster with them, it requires a lighter touch, and the auto correct is good enough. What I miss about blackberries is that they were messaging devices, with OS level integrations around messaging that went beyond the notification system of today. For 90% of messages i send, i could simply use a generic sms style interface through a system-wide messaging app, only jumping into…

[deleted]

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

#45
post #36

Yes I miss it everyday, I feel so clumsy typing on a piece of glass, and make soo many typos. I could type BLIND without typos whole emails while maintaining a casual conversation (much to the annoyance of my girlfriend). There are a lot of BlackBerry-stans still on crackberry.com holding out on older and newer BlackBerry phoned (key2 being the latest). Really loved my Q10 with bb10os and my Keyone running Android! S…

I really am surprised that with of all models of Android phones in the world, no one is making one with a keyboard. Even if it was a niche product, you'd think there would be an audience...

I had a sony xperia pro for a while, but performance was clagging no matter what custom Android build I used. I do miss hardware qwerty keyboards

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

#46
post #6

I do miss my Treo. I preferred it to my Blackberry. Both were better and less distracting than my current ad-presenting spy box.

The Treo 650 was my first smartphone, followed by the OG iPhone, the Blackberry Pearl, and the Nokia N900. At the time, the iPhone was actually a step down from the Treo but my Palm phone had died a watery death and they weren't available anymore from my carrier so I went with the iPhone. This was before the App Store, so everything not already installed was a web app and they all sucked back then. After just a few m…

The WP interface was an aesthetic delight. I miss it

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

#47
No one has yet mentioned the Blackberry Priv, an Android phone with a quality keyboard sold as recently as 2016. I loved it so much, but it recently stopped holding charge among other issues, so I had to get a new Samsung. I type an order of magnitude slower now, and I write constantly. But there is no alternative. I don't know if you guys are aware, but https://www.onwardmobility.com/ is supposed to release a new Android BlackBerry phone this year, although I got tired of waiting, because from what I recall, they kept pushing back the release date.

It's amazing how there's definitely a large section of the market who would buy a phone with a decent keyboard, but there's zero interest from the companies. Instead, we get the innovation of (what are in my opinion) gimmicky clam phones with two screens.

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

#48
The only BlackBerry I ever owned was the BlackBerry Classic, back when that was still contemporary. Best phone I ever had. The UX was very consistent between apps, everything targeting it natively tended to be quite speedy, and the keyboard was excellent.

I also miss the "BlackBerry Hub" feature, which would aggregate your emails, BlackBerry messenger messages, and SMS messages into a single UI. It even pulled in notifications from Android apps, though opening them switched to that app rather than letting you reply in-line.

I bought mine after they had already released Android compatibility for any APK you cared to load, but unfortunately I think that feature was too little, too late.

I've been on an iPhone SE since around 2016. If I had the option to go back to using the BB Classic hardware/OS as it was when I switched, but with third-party app support and security updates, I would do it without second thought.

Post reply on HN