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BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone

nytimes.com

31–40 of 50 posts

Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone

#31

I think this is the craziest line in the entire story: The Passport was already in development years before Mr. Chen arrived. Years? Chen has been their CEO for a year now. When did this project start?

no source, but I was told it was just an idea that was sitting around that none of the former leaders wanted to launch.

Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

No: 66 characters per line vs 31 for the iphone [in portrait mode] [before the new models came out] 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…

Comparing apples to oranges here. This is a portrait mode device for people who like to read content. If you want to compare landscape you would compare iPhone 6 to Z30, and well, the Z30 has a better reading surface.

Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone

#33
post #5

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.

Last I heard they were focusing on the healthcare vertical, but finance kinda makes sense too.

Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone

#34
post #29

Why the hell can't I just have my Blackberry Curve back? Please! The form factor was perfect, the battery was great, the operating system was hella snappier than my current Nexus, all it needed was to run Android apps and have a better camera. Why are they trying to sell us bathroom tiles now?

> But some analysts say that BlackBerry must overcome several significant hurdles to re-establish its phone business with the Passport and a second model, the BlackBerry Classic, which has not yet been released.

You may get your wish.

Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone

#35
post #30
post #2

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.

They used to be industry leaders. I don't know what happened.

I think, neither did they.

Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone

#36
post #28
post #26

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,…

Would you care to elaborate more on what about BB 10/BB OS 10 is mediocre? 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

Not him, but the biggest and obvious one is the ecosystem. There are no apps for the bloody thing, and the most charitable thing I could say about the Android support is that it's weak and half-baked.

The device and OS itself is solid, but nobody cares if there are no applications for it. A smartphone without apps is not substantially different from a circa early-2000s feature phone with worse battery life.

Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone

#40
post #26

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,…

IMO, the problem is that the only people still buying BlackBerry phones are the die-hards who want their hardware keyboards.

The Z10 was a BB10 device that did have a touch-screen keyboard, and its sales were pathetic.

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