Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry? • Hacker News Board

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

#161

Post by 5etho » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:32 AM UTC

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…

there all phone with phycical keyboard, unihertz, even blackberries drop new keybaord phone this year

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

#162

Post by sneak » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:35 AM UTC

For me it was the ios keyboard circa ios5 or 6. I was soooo fast on that thing. It got worse for a while and now the current ios keyboard is about 80-90% as good.

This comment presumes your question is primarily focused on text input.

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

#163

Post by skinnymuch » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:36 AM UTC

Dracophoenix wrote: post #2

I wished I had a Blackberry when I was a much younger, but personally I miss Windows Phones a lot more.

Yes I wish I tried Blackberry out as my first smart phone a bit before the first iPhone was out. However I miss webOS and Windows Phone so much too. WebOS had a unified messaging app. Back then you could integrate a couple of things like Skype in the texting app.

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

#164

Post by fuball63 » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:36 AM UTC

I had a Blackberry classic until a month ago when AT&T sent me a new phone in the mail with a letter saying they would deactivate my Blackberry automatically due to 5g.

I hate my new phone. There is absolutely no way I could effectively type without autocorrect. And because I won't sign in to Google, I can't install apps or use turn by turn navigation, so I'm essentially where I started with my blackberry. "Progress".

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

#165

Post by nikanj » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:39 AM UTC

I miss having a really solid keyboard. I don't miss the OS.

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

#166

Post by skinnymuch » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:39 AM UTC

I never got to try Blackberry. I wish I tried it around the time the first iPhone came out and I was getting my own phone. iPhone I did get webOS and Windows Phone between 2009-2012 though and miss them both dearly. WebOS had an attempt at a unified messaging app. Back then you could integrate a couple of things like Skype with texting. I can’t recall what else could be added. It has been so long.

WebOS also was open and friendly to the homebrew/rooting/jailbreak community and apps were being made in JS/html/css. This preference depends on the person. It would have been nice to see the side effects of using web technologies on phones. Today it’s all about the web on desktop and apps on phones.

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

#167

Post by skinnymuch » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:42 AM UTC

tomaskafka wrote: post #151

charlesdaniels wrote: post #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 not…

I still want Apple to make a Hub thing inside iOS. I hate having to use 6 messaging apps to reach people I love, but as a 'data providers' I'd keep them installed.

There’s startups focusing on this. https://Beeperhq.com and https://texts.com

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

#168

Post by skinnymuch » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:49 AM UTC

trangus_1985 wrote: post #5

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…

Which message services are you referring to? The most popular modern messaging apps wouldn’t work with the single interface nowadays. FBM, WhatsApp’s. I don’t know if third party integrations would be allowed so other apps could get integrated.

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

#169

Post by qutreM » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:51 AM UTC

I miss a slide out physical keyboard, like on the Nokia N810.

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

#170

Post by gorgoiler » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:57 AM UTC

I miss it. I still have one! The keyboard wasn’t the only physical bonus of these devices that was cool. The dedicated play/pause button on the very top was also a really neat feature.

A friend of mine had some elevator music* queued up at all times, and would turn it on surreptitiously when riding.

*Radio Prague from Machinarium: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EY5XRt7iBUI