41–50 of 101 posts
15 years ago Steve Jobs convinced the world why physical keyboard is a bad idea and rightly so. Of course there are trade offs but for me having no keyboard means more screen real estate which wins over everything.
Steve Ballmer on the release of the first iPhone: “And it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard. Which makes it not a very good email machine.”
I miss the keyboard on the HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1[0], it hid behind the screen until you needed it, so there was no need to sacrifice screen or keyboard size. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Dream
Aren't sliding keyboards dust traps?
Fully android with a nice keyboard that was even touch-sensitive, so you could run your finger across it to scroll. Absolute game-changer, for me at least. I have been wanting someone to add a touch-sensitive volume rocker that I could use the touch-sensitivity for scrolling since at least 2008, so having it show up as a proof of the concept on a keyboard was excellent. Of course, it still sucks that no one has actually made a touch-sensitive volume rocker with those dual functionalities.
Anyway, phone was solid and snappy, it could run every app I needed, and had all kinds of "Blackberry Security" which felt pretty good, even if it was just 'state of the art' rather than anything special. It was also a nice confirmation of my biases, because I was able to type faster on that keyboard than on any digital keyboard I've tried before or since. I really, REALLY believe that tactile buttons are superior for a lot of micro-reasons, and they BBK2 only reinforced that belief. So I definitely agree with the author that physical keyboard lift a soft-limit in typing speed, at least for certain types of people. No swype has ever been as accurate, no digital key has ever had the range of input (straight down, weird side presses, press first row; lift above second row; press third row, wiggle press for doubles, etc, etc), and no orienter is ever as instantly recognized as the little bumps on the home keys. When I'm using a tiny physical keyboard, I can fly at about 100 WPM; digital keyboards lock me at around 60-ish.
Unfortunately, the phone's not 5G, and definitely shows its processor age, these days. But I still love to have it around for note-taking on the wi-fi and for leaving in dev mode so I can push apps to it for testing.
From the image, it looks like the author taps, 2007-style, rather than swiping: https://duet-cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0x0:600x338/1080x608/fi...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’d love a shake pattern for flashlight on iOS!
It's really handy, I don't generally even use the flashlight in my pocket when I have one on me, but somehow the phone gesture flashlight gets used about 10-20x daily, even for walking into a room without hitting the light switch, since the phone is in my hand.
I miss the keyboard on the HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1[0], it hid behind the screen until you needed it, so there was no need to sacrifice screen or keyboard size. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Dream
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's really handy, I don't generally even use the flashlight in my pocket when I have one on me, but somehow the phone gesture flashlight gets used about 10-20x daily, even for walking into a room without hitting the light switch, since the phone is in my hand.
Is this an iOS feature? Where do I find it?
Unfortunately the best flashlight gesture experience in the business seems to be sold by Motorola. At least last I checked.
My friend liked mine and even found an Android app for trying it on his phone, but basically it was 3x slower than the Moto gestures version despite being on a much faster phone. Not sure why.
A desktop keyboard might be fine with two alphabets, but a phone one is just too small.