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Ask HN: Do you still miss your RIM BlackBerry?

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

#92

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…

Do you use Swiftkey-like typing on your keyboard? On my Android phone I find I can type so fast with it, and I barely have to look at the keyboard.

Could you expand on what you're talking about? I'm having a hard time picturing it but I'm interested.

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

#93
post #60

I had an 8830 and I absolutely loved it. The keyboard was magnificent. I still do not understand how, despite being a daily user of iPhone/android on-screen keyboards for about ten years, I can barely type a single word without typos, backspaces, and functional-idiot-grade autocorrects. This was never, ever a problem with the BB. If they’d kept the physical keyboard form factor and added a reasonable touch screen/OS/…

On Android, have you trying installing Google’s gboard and swiping? It is like a superpower for typing fast, and so few people with Samsung seem to discover it (and most iPhone users are not aware of what they are missing).

I was wondering this while scrolling through the thread.

I swype too :)

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

#95
I'm on my third Key2, having previously churned through two Priv (first true Android smartphone). The Priv had a superior hardware UX while it lasted; compute and software maintenance eventually caught up to it though.

Before that, several Curve variants. Still before that, Palm Treo 755p and 650. Despite the habit of always dropping them (out of lap and onto concrete/asphalt while egressing car), none ever actually broke...a bad (and expensive) habit to retain with smartphones, especially since having a protective case is a non-starter for me.

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

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use Swiftkey-like typing on your keyboard? On my Android phone I find I can type so fast with it, and I barely have to look at the keyboard.

Could you expand on what you're talking about? I'm having a hard time picturing it but I'm interested.

Swiftkey like keyboards (like … Swiftkey or the iOS one) are keyboards where you write your words by swiping your finger across the letters of the keyboard, releasing your finger between each word.

Like this : https://youtu.be/D2XyP7iUErI at 00:17

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

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use Swiftkey-like typing on your keyboard? On my Android phone I find I can type so fast with it, and I barely have to look at the keyboard.

Could you expand on what you're talking about? I'm having a hard time picturing it but I'm interested.

Check for Swiftkey Keyboard app ;-)

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

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use Swiftkey-like typing on your keyboard? On my Android phone I find I can type so fast with it, and I barely have to look at the keyboard.

Could you expand on what you're talking about? I'm having a hard time picturing it but I'm interested.

https://support.google.com/gboard/answer/2811346?hl=en-GB&co...

Glide / Flow typing where you merely draw an approximate path of the shape that your typing would have followed.

It allows for very quick typing on a screen keyboard without the hammering of specific letters.

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

#99
I used to be the PM for BlackBerry at a telco, and I remember using the early GPRS models.

To this day I miss having a lightweight, pocket (well, belt-strapped) email and IM client that I only had to charge once a week.

The ergonomics and UX were great (the side scroll and select wheel was 90% of it really, not the keyboard itself).

I used every single model until the Storm. That was their first touchscreen model, which was so bad, buggy and unusable I persuaded our CMO to only buy 200 (which was a great decision, since in the UK there was something like a 25% return rate in the first week).

By then I had seen enough. I swapped my Bold for an iPhone and never looked back.

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

#100

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…

Do you use Swiftkey-like typing on your keyboard? On my Android phone I find I can type so fast with it, and I barely have to look at the keyboard.

Swiftkey seems nice until you're not an english native speaker, which means you automatically write in 2 languages (native and at least some english). Now good luck having the keyboard guess which dictionary to use for every single word, which can even lead to mistakes if both suggest the same thing (capitalization). I care about not having a wrong word in the middle of every other sentence.

And even that doesn't change the simple fact that typing on it is cumbersome. Swiftkey is a little better on average, but still not even close to an actual keyboard.

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