21–30 of 50 posts
The Passport was already in development
years before Mr. Chen arrived.
In contrast to many of the others, I think the industrial design of this thing is beautiful. Of greater potential interest around here is they relatively quietly added the Amazon App Store to it. Still, it amazes me that they don't do something fairly obvious like team up with Bloomberg on becoming the mobile Bloomberg terminals, complete with the chat and coloured keys.
That is one hell of an idea.
If a brand is out of fashion, of course everyone loves to join in the fun and pile on, and any innovation, good or bad, is automatically thrown onto the bonfire. It's too bad because I think the screen is innovative, and I wish others would follow suit. Some extra space on the side is more valuable to me than more at the top. I tried a squarish LG phablet a couple years ago and loved it. Unhappily the software was po…
> Some extra space on the side is more valuable to me than more at the top Serious question: doesn't the landscape mode of rectangular screens sufficiently address this?
If a brand is out of fashion, of course everyone loves to join in the fun and pile on, and any innovation, good or bad, is automatically thrown onto the bonfire. It's too bad because I think the screen is innovative, and I wish others would follow suit. Some extra space on the side is more valuable to me than more at the top. I tried a squarish LG phablet a couple years ago and loved it. Unhappily the software was po…
Who is the market? Cheapskate enterprise customers with huge pockets?
> The Passport, when bought without a carrier subsidy or large corporate buyer’s discount, will cost $600 in the United States, $50 less than the basic iPhone 6. Where is the market for a $600 handset that isn't an iPhone 6?
The market is: businesses and governments that cannot afford to use anything less secure. For this niche, their phone could be $1000, they're still going to buy BlackBerry because it is the only thing that checks all the boxes and provides the security processes necessary. This might not be a tens of a billions of dollar revenue per quarter business like top consumer electronics manufacturers are, but it is a great n…
I feel like hardware keyboards on mobile devices are archaic and overhyped. I know it's Blackberry's key thing, but instead of trying the same old tired keyboard, why not embrace the software keyboard with some innovations? They could do some research in ultrasonic haptic feedback, shape shifting displays, even something as far fetched as claytronics to replicate the the textures and friction of everyday objects.
If you like or have to use Blackberry, I guess this is the phone for you, but otherwise how can anybody want to choose a painfully mediocre device? I don't feel sorry for their slow fade into obsolescence.
I never understood how Blackberry hardware designers can be so bad. I'm glad they realized that the keyboard is where the Blackberry shines but, a square design!? They should've stuck with something more similar to the Q10.
The keyboard doubles as a track pad. I imagine the phone will shine when reading content in landscape mode, and scrolling using the track pad. Supposedly works well for lefties too. I understand that the BlackBerry displays around 66 lines of text, compared with the iPhones 31-odd. I'd like very much to play with one before I wrote the device off. Given that I use my phone primarily for reading this could find a nich…
Failing to compete with last year's devices is not the path to victory.
The register is the most positive writeup I've seen, and the headline is "it's bonkers". E.g. They like the trackpad keyboard for handling a large display without using both hands compared with Apple's "reachability", but you have to use both hands. So where's the advantage.
I know my opinion isn't in line with the positive feedback loop culture on HN, but this phone looks like a joke! I feel like hardware keyboards on mobile devices are archaic and overhyped. I know it's Blackberry's key thing, but instead of trying the same old tired keyboard, why not embrace the software keyboard with some innovations? They could do some research in ultrasonic haptic feedback, shape shifting displays,…
Edit (after response below): I should add the only item I can think of is Apps but they are working on wrapping Android items.
Edit 2: z30 - sunspider - tinyurl.com/pt6gjrw
I never understood how Blackberry hardware designers can be so bad. I'm glad they realized that the keyboard is where the Blackberry shines but, a square design!? They should've stuck with something more similar to the Q10.